


the thick of it

by bitterbones



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alpha Ben Solo, Alpha Kylo Ren, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Cunnilingus, Dirty Talk, Doggy Style, F/M, Knotting, Kylo seems OOC, Love Triangles, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Omega Rey, Oral Sex, Porn with minimal Plot, Size Kink, Solo Twins, This porn is slowly developing a plot, Threesome, bear with me, breylo - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-18
Updated: 2019-03-30
Packaged: 2019-04-01 01:06:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 23,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13987161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bitterbones/pseuds/bitterbones
Summary: He swallowed thickly; “Let me help you.” The dam that had been so dutifully holding back his instinct had broken; his expression was feral, animal in the face of such a beautiful, needy creature.Kylo leaned forward, letting the jut of his nose pass fleetingly over the meat of her shoulder, scenting her. “I’ve never smelled anything quite like that.”Rey had always been a solitary creature; a hunter, she was self reliant. But this heat was particularly intense, and so when an Alpha offered himself to her, she accepted without hesitation.It was only a one time thing. It had to be.Rey had always been a solitary creature.





	1. the trail

Rey groped blindly at her pack, hissing through her teeth as the rodent she held to the ground sunk its pointed teeth into the meat of her hand. 

 

Her knife. Such a simple implement, and one she normally wore on her belt when hunting; but today wasn’t an ordinary day. 

 

She cut the creature’s throat cleanly, and tied it to her belt by its tail. Her mind was foggy, her movement staggered as she crept over the substrate, sending most potential prey scrambling from the brush in her clumsiness. 

 

She was in heat, regrettably. It jilted her step and thickened her spit. Her skin and insides were aflame with it. 

 

Heat or no, she had to hunt. No one else would make sure that an outcast like her ate. She had always fended for herself, and would continue to do so. No one and nothing would stand between her and her dinner. 

 

This was her first real heat in years— since she had presented as an omega at fourteen. Always she had kept them at bay by drinking a daily suppressant tincture. An unfortunate mix of fermented fruit and herbs that never failed to trigger her gag reflex. It had been suggested to her by another outcast, an old woman of seventy odd years who had managed to keep the alphas away for the whole of her fertile time. 

 

It had become an ingrained part of her daily routine; so robotic that she hardly noticed its presence. So inherent that she didn’t even think about it when she had forgotten it that morning; tradition dictating that she had already ingested it sometime between dressing and tying back her hair. Not until she had felt the tingle at the base of her spine and the burn that developed between her thighs did she realize her mistake. 

 

Gods be damned, she was in trouble. 

 

Her clan was currently stationed in the cut, a deep gorge of spiritual significance to all of the clans— who were currently meeting for a congress of the spiritual leaders. To go back was to bring every unmated alpha within a half mile radius chasing after her. 

 

Ten clans all gathered in the deep, straight riverbed of the cut; there must have been over a thousand alphas. All strong and virile and ready to take. 

 

It was enough to make her mouth water as her heat encroached on her. 

 

Rey shook her head clear and collected herself. Ignoring the slick between her thighs, she began to scheme. 

 

She had two options; ride the cycle out in the dense forests growing high on the plateaus that guarded either side of the cut, or travel along the steep edge until she came to the outskirts of the clansmeet. That was where needy omegas with no mates were relegated to during this sacred time, along with Alphas who were in the midst of their rut. 

 

She sniffed at both ideas. Hiding away in the forests carried its own set of risks; fearsome creatures roamed these woods, things that could tear her in two were she not careful. But the thought of willingly subjugating herself in the outskirts was also less than satisfactory. 

 

Rey didn’t want to give herself to some nameless alpha who would knot her a few times and then leave. She wasn’t a virgin by any means, but she had only ever laid with betas and other omegas, and never while she was in heat. 

 

She groaned and sank down the wide trunk of a tree, pressing her knuckles against her teeth to stifle the noise. She could feel the heady flush creeping over her skin, could smell the telling scent of pheromones as they rolled off of her, signaling to any nearby alphas that she was fertile and ready for mating. 

 

“Damn it!” She cursed as she undid the leather belt that held her jerkin in place over her grey tunic. After that it was easy enough to undo the lacings of her hunting trousers and shove her hand downward towards her scalding center. 

 

If she could just get off, dampen the release of pheromones long enough to make it back to her hovel, then _maybe_ she could still halt this torture before it inevitably intensified. 

 

Rey moaned against the knuckles of her left hand as her right rubbed furiously at her clit. This heat had been building for five years, and even on this first day it carried all of the fire of the third day peak. 

 

She wailed when the pads of her curling fingers brushed up against that spot deep inside; she was close already. _So close_. 

 

So close in fact, that she didn’t hear the sound of the leaf litter rustling, the sound of heavy panting as a fellow hunter approached. 

 

“Who are you?” A voice deep and thick as honey snapped Rey from her reverie; and she keened as her orgasm was delayed, ran like water through her fingers as she reeled in the leaf litter. 

 

Suddenly finding her shame, she pulled her hand away from her cunt as if it had burned her, and fumbled to lace up her breeches. 

 

A man loomed over her, dark and pale all the same. A scar ran from just above an ebony eyebrow and disappeared under the press of his leather hunting jerkin. If she hadn’t been sure of his identity before, she was now. He was the war chieftain of a clan that was not her own. A station that garnered all of the respect that the shamans— their spiritual leaders— did. 

 

Kylo Ren. Easily the most notorious warrior of all ten clans. Rumor said that he hand never once lost a fight—fist, lance, or sword—and that he had fathered a hundred bastards among the needy omegas of his clan. 

 

His nostrils were flared and his pupils blown wide. He smelled wonderful, heady and earthy. Rey licked her parted lips. 

 

“What are you doing out here, omega?” He rasped. Rey could already see his control beginning to slip. She could see the outline of his cock where it pressed insistently against his trousers. He was very large. It seemed she had already sent him into rut with the intensity of her heat, the heavy release of singing pheromones that wafted past his long nose. 

 

Others broke through the foliage; his hunting party. All of them just as tall and dark as he. They also caught her scent— who wouldn’t have? It was so pungent— but Ren snarled for them to stay back. 

 

It was only once she spotted the swords that hung from their belts that Rey realized that it wasn’t a hunting party. Kylo Ren was leading a war band. 

 

“Answer me!” He demanded, but before she could part her lips one of his companions lunged for her.

 

In a flash of black and fury Ren intercepted him, tackling the man to the forest floor. 

 

“What the fuck are you doing?!” Ren snarled, pinning the offender’s wrist above his head with a single, large hand as the man struggled and growled beneath him. “Get him out of here! I’ll tend to the bitch.”

 

The others leapt to follow his command. Rey cringed at the word _bitch_ , but it wasn’t meant to insult. It was simply an unfortunate word that some clans used to denote an omega— male or female—in heat. 

 

He watched them retreat into the trees, then turned his attention back to her. She could see the muscles straining in his neck as he scented the air. “Why are you out here? There are creatures in these woods, things that would tear a little thing like you to shreds.” 

 

Rey whined; he smelled too good. _She just wanted_ — she lunged for him, reaching out so that she might bury her face into the crook of his neck, right over his scent gland. 

 

“No!” He snarled, catching her forearms in his hands. They were so large, Gods above that did _something_ to her. “No.” He pressed them back to her chest. 

 

His eyes raked over her, desperate for an easy solution to this problem. He paused when he noticed the bow slung over her shoulder, the creatures tied to her belt, and the knife tucked neatly at her side. 

 

“A huntress…” he mused, “ _and_ an omega? Do they not care for their omegas in your clan, girl? Why must you feed yourself?” 

 

Outcasts were not welcome at the communal tables; but she would not tell him that. 

 

Rey gulped and whimpered again, struggling in his grip, “I can take care of myself.” She hissed, seething through the haze of heat. How dare he presume her to be weak, she wasn’t some needy _bitch_ , mewling for an alpha to come and take her, care for her like a child. 

 

Kylo looked back to the game at her waist, “It would seem so. But a pretty little thing like you should know better than to set foot outside her hut while like this. If I hadn’t been here every man in my party would be on you, fighting over you like dogs over scrap.” 

 

Rey moaned at the mental image; they had all been strong, capable alphas, and multiple partners hardly seemed like a bad thing at the moment. She suspected that she could outpace anyone in her current state. 

 

When her gaze refocused she realized that alpha was only breathing through his mouth, avoiding the heavy scent of her heat as best he could. “I’m taking you to the outskirts. If you try to return to your clan you’ll send half the alphas in the cut into rut. Your aroma is… powerful.”

 

“ _No_ ,” She pled. She didn’t want to go there, to be fucked by someone she didn’t even know then sent on her way, bowlegged and weak kneed. “Please, I just—” she gasped as her thighs rubbed together just right, “I just need to make it home. I have a poultice— I mean a… a potion.” 

 

He swallowed hard, and Rey could see the struggle for self control playing out across his handsome face. He ghosted the backs of his knuckles over the curve of her cheekbone and his touch left a trail of fire in its wake. 

 

“It’s too late for that, little one.” His voice was labored, his breath coming out in uneven pants, “You’re in the thick of it now.” 

 

He swallowed thickly; “ _Let me help you_.” The dam that had been so dutifully holding back his instinct had broken; his expression was feral, animal in the face of such a beautiful, needy creature. 

 

Kylo leaned forward, letting the jut of his nose pass fleetingly over the meat of her shoulder, scenting her. “ _I’ve never smelled anything quite like that_.”

 

“It’s been awhile.” She offered. 

 

Rey knew where this was going, and suddenly she had no want or will to resist. He could help her weather this, and that was all she needed. At least she knew his name. 

 

“I can’t take you back like this,” he whispered, letting his teeth drag along the delicate skin of her throat, “We’ll need to dampen it here.” 

 

Rey sighed. She hadn’t wanted to do this in the middle of the forest, but the prospect of drawing so much unwanted attention to herself was far worse. 

 

“I won’t knot you,” he grunted, undoing the lacing of his pants, “Just make you come. It’ll tide you over until we get back, ease the heat enough to pass through while garnering minimal attention.” 

 

He fished himself out of his loose, deerskin pants, and there it was. His cock was amazingly somehow larger than it had seemed pressed to the seam of his trousers. Throbbing, and angry red with the tumescent swell of a barely formed knot pulsing needily at its base. Rey had never wanted anything so badly. 

 

He shoved her hunting apparel out of his way with ease; she had already done half the job for him earlier. Now it was just a matter of getting him inside of her.

 

“ _Please_.” She begged, and then he was on her, mouth crashing against hers in a scathing kiss, their teeth clacked and her back hit the substrate at an odd angle as he positioned himself over her, but none of that mattered. 

 

What mattered was the press of the wide, blunt head of his cock against her folds. He slid his shaft through them again and again, coating himself in her heady slick. 

 

“Fuck!” She braced her hands on his broad shoulders, “Gods, please just fuck me. I’m wet enough, it won’t hurt, I promise.”

 

One of his broad hands planted just above her head while he wedged the other between the small of her back and the forest floor, bowing her back and raising her midsection. He grunted and buried his face in her clothed bosom as he finally rocked into her, pushing her hips upward to meet his thrust. 

 

Rey gaped, lips curled into an ‘o’ as Ren huffed over her; taking a moment to steady himself before he continued. 

 

It didn’t hurt in the slightest. The sensation was one of total fullness, her tight body stretching to accommodate the girth and length of an alpha cock. He remained still above her, puffing his full lips as he battled to maintain his self control. 

 

He didn’t want to hurt her, she realized, astonished that an alpha mid rut could have such self discipline when faced with a panting, wet omega. Still, she appreciated the gesture, but it was unnecessary. Her cunt was soaked and unbearably hot, and each second that wasn’t spent with him rutting into her was a second wasted. 

 

Rey whimpered and drew her nails roughly over his clothed shoulders, signaling for him to _move_. Kylo understood, and hunched over her, his corded neck exposed above her while his forehead pressed to the soil beyond her shoulder. Then he snapped his hips and her world went alight. 

 

It was perfect, his cock stretching and filling her to the very brim, his heavy sac slapping rhythmically against her rear and his breath coming hot and heavy just over her ear. Each thrust was short and deep, his cock never pulled more than a scant few inches from her before he seated himself again. 

 

Rey mewled into his throat and locked her legs around the small of his back, rolling her hips upwards to meet his every thrust. He fucked harder at the encouragement, the head of his cock beating against her insides and thrusting repeatedly against that one sweet spot that made her legs shake and her eyes flutter. 

 

“That’s it.” He panted, “You take so well, _little huntress_.”

 

She could only mewl and whimper, rolling back against him in a frantic give-and-take. 

 

Only moments of fervent rutting and already she was nearing her end; tight walls fluttering around him as he pounded. He bowed his neck so that his lips brushed lightly over the crook of her neck with each sharp thrust of his narrow hips, and she crooned at the sensation, begging for a firm, skin tearing bite. 

 

“Close already, little one?” He goaded. And when Rey whimpered and nodded her head pleadingly, he grinned and slowed his pace. 

 

“ _Please_.” She sobbed into his neck, clawing at the rippling muscles of his broad shoulders. 

 

She felt more than heard the low, rumbling laughter echo through his sweaty chest, and he stilled above her. Her cunt throbbed and his cock pulsed, but neither of them came.

 

Why was he stopping?! Why was he teasing her like this?! She wanted to cry with the frustration of it. 

 

“Why— _oh_.” 

 

Kylo shifted, pulling out of her wetly to change their position. He sat back and spread his legs, cock bouncing heavily, and rested on his shins. Then he caught her by her hips with two broad hands. His thumbs nearly met in the middle of her abdomen as they stroked gentle circles over her tawny skin. Then he dragged her towards him. 

 

“Wrap your legs around me little huntress,” he commanded. 

 

She did, locking her ankles at the small of his back, and their bodies were flush to one another. The slick folds of her pussy pressed firmly to his cock, holding it firmly against the tensed muscles that flexed in his abdomen. It twitched under her gaze, the head of it near purple with need. 

 

He flashed her a feral grin and she shuddered beneath him. “Ready, little huntress?” He pulled back just enough to align himself with her slit then he hilted himself inside of her. 

 

His hips stuttered against hers as he struggled to find a pleasing angle, he shifted his weight from one leg to another, but nothing quite fit. The pace was slow, and the rock of his hips not as deep as either of them would have liked. 

 

Kylo grunted his displeasure, and reached behind his back for her ankles, prying them apart. He lifted her legs up, bent at the knee, gripping just beneath her heels. Then he rocked forward again, the fat head of him pressing so deep that she shouted into the empty forest air. Slowly, he retracted, until only the tip was fitted so snugly into her cunt. 

 

“Ready, _now_?” He entreated, and she nodded eagerly, desperate for him to take. 

 

His eyes held her own as he laid into her, setting a brutal pace. The sound of their frantic coupling frightened the birds from the trees and the surrounding wood was silent save for the wet slap of their flesh, her high cries, and his low praises and bellows of pleasure. 

 

Each thrust brought her closer to her peak. She could feel where his knot was beginning to swell at the base of him; pulsing heavy where it battered her entrance. She wanted it. Gods, how she wanted it. Nothing would soothe this ceaseless burn like the white hot balm of his cum in her, the heft of his knot stretching her wide and full as it locked him in within her. 

 

Her eyes trailed down his chest to where they were joined, and his own followed suit. 

 

His brow furrowed when he saw what had drawn her attention from his face. “I can’t knot— _hah_ — knot you here, little one.” He panted, but by the way the muscle jumped in his clenched jaw she knew he was tempted, maybe if she just— 

 

“No.” He snapped, tightening his grip on her legs and then bending them forward until they were pressed to her chest; he braced his hands on her thighs, just beneath the bend of her knee, and his pace leapt in caliber from frantic to erratic. He was fucking her across the forest floor, leaving a short trail of churned dirt in their wake. 

 

“Gods you’re so tight.” He bowed his dark head and squeezed his eyes shut, fending off his own climax. A bead of sweat dropped from his forehead to her breast and she cooed at him, begging him for it.

 

“ _Knot me, knot me, knot me, knot me._ ”

 

Rey cut herself off with a keen as a sudden wave of white hot pleasure overwhelmed her; her vision whited out and she dug her blunted nails so deeply into his wrists that she drew blood. She bit her lip and choked back a sob of relief as she rocked through it, using her vice like grip on his arms to leverage her thrusting against him while he remained perfectly still. 

 

His eyes were wide, hands fisted on the forest floor as he grappled with himself for control. He wanted to knot her, she could see it in his eyes. He wanted to knot her, and mate her, and lock them together here in the woods. But he couldn’t, so he shut his beautiful eyes and clenched his teeth, letting her use him until she was done. 

 

And she was done, eventually, and he still pulsed inside of her. He wasn’t done. 

 

Kylo pulled out of her and made to lace up his breeches. But she stopped him with a tiny trembling hand. 

 

“Wait,” She said, mind still foggy with heat, “I did this to you, let me—”

 

He waved her off, swatting her hand away as he finished righting himself. For a terrible moment Rey thought he was going to leave her to drag her own, panting self back to the cut. But he knelt in front of her and began to right her as well, whispering gentle words, cooing at her like a child. 

 

That was what alphas did, care for their omegas. She would’ve recoiled from the thought normally; her independence and pride standing between herself and any meaningful contact. But not this day, not while her heat still tingled up her spine and threatened to soil her clothing all over again. 

 

“Not now, little one.” He lifted her up into his arms, clutching her to his broad chest as he began to walk, “I am a formidable man. I’ve dealt with worse than unsated rut before. We’re not done yet.” 

 

Rey should’ve said no. She should’ve slapped him across his handsome, smug face and been done with it; fled back to her hut to ride out this nightmare alone. But in the thick of heat an omega’s mind never operated like it should, was never separated from the slick that gathered between their quivering thighs. So Rey only leaned closer and nibbled at the delicate skin of his pale throat, eager to carry on. 

 

Kylo Ren preened under her touch and whispered into her ear words that made her shudder; “I’ll see you through his heat, little huntress. And when I’m done _you’ll be mine_.”


	2. Instinct demands

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This whole chapter was written on my phone because my laptop is off being repaired. That’s also why I haven’t responded to any comments yet. I will when I get my laptop back! I promise.

The trek back to Kylo’s impermanent home was one of sensory overload. Every scent overwhelmed her, frazzling her mind and nose; cookfires where great aurochs roasted on long spits wide as trees, the perfumed aroma of incense burning in silver censers that lined the narrow winding path, the musky scent of alphas; some did take notice of her, but each time Ren’s hackles raised and the offenders took heed. 

 

The hearing was worse, every clang of a cookpot, every wail or raucous laugh of a child, every steady beat of Kylo’s heart split her attention in a hundred different ways. But feeling, touching, was the worst of all. Her clothes felt too tight and hot, chafing against her nipples and sensitive skin. The alphas own ensemble wasn’t helping, his tunic might’ve been roughspun with the way it grated her, and his broad hands clutched her too tightly while she squirmed in her own hide. 

 

Heat was terrible. Why would anyone ever willingly go through it? Rey was miserable, hot and still sloppy slick between her supple thighs, with a half dozen alphas drooling over the sweet smell of her. But the only one who mattered had her cradled to his chest like she was the most precious thing to him, like she needed to be protected. For once in her life she accepted a gesture of compassion— only due to her heat, mind— and she curled closer into him, burying her face against his shoulder and inhaling deeply of his scent to ground herself. 

 

He gave a hum of contentedness, then shouldered through a flap of silk and deerskin, and suddenly the sounds of the encampment were dampened, and the smell of incense was nary a whisper in the air. 

 

Rey reluctantly turned her face away from his throat to behold his home. It was large and octagonal. In the dim light provided by a low burning brazier she could make out the shimmer of silk walls dyed maroon, maybe red. There was a gilded basin meant for bathing— of course a War Chief wouldn’t bathe in the river like the common folk— and a stack of animal furs that must’ve been three feet high. Over it were tossed several sheets and blankets of various makes, wool and sand-silk and a dozen other weaves and fabrics that she could not name. 

 

Scattered about, hewn into the silken walls, and adorning small impermanent shelves were trophies of past victories. Small semblances of foreign deities cast in gold and copper and silver, some with eyes of rubies and topaz; the gods taken from that lands that his clan had raided and conquered. Several pelts hung, ones too valuable to sleep on. White wolves and black lions, a striped cat from the far south. 

 

He saw what had caught her attention and smiled. He set her on her feet and pressed his full lips to her ear. “All my work,” he whispered, “My kills, my victories.”

 

Rey swallowed and nodded, uncertain of what to feel, what these manifestations of his prowess meant to her. She had expected to scent a dozen other omegas in this place, but all that she detected was the pungent scent of Alpha, and the weak odor of the betas that were his servants. 

 

“It’s not often that I bring a partner here.” He supplied, and she supposed it was meant to be a compliment, a testament to the quality of her cunt, but in a moment of clarity she could only wonder how many partners he had, in or out of this place. 

 

He didn’t let her linger long on the thought, spinning her in his arms so that she faced him. Kylo smiled down at her— he was handsome when he wasn’t scowling— and wrapped his thick arms around her waist. Rey planted her hands on his biceps and waited warily for his next action. 

 

“Are you ready, little huntress?” He asked, and it occurred to her that he didn’t even know her name. He hadn’t bothered to ask. 

 

Rey retreated from him, breaking his hold on her, and she wandered across the plush, exotic rugs that were laid over the dirt floor. Sewn into the maroon tapestries were images of the gods; a common luxury in the abodes of the upper echelon. With the pantheon on display for them they need not venture to the temples or sepulchres near so often as those beneath them. She stopped before the visage of the hunter, depicted in the same golden thread as all the others. Rey would have chosen green if it wouldn’t have clashed so terribly with the deep red backdrop.

 

“You don’t even know my name, Kylo Ren.” She lamented, but already the burn was building between her thighs. Her voice quavered on his name. 

 

He pursued her, grumbling as he strode after her. His arms wound around her waist again and his full lips brushed the crook of her shoulder. “What is it then? What name belongs to such a fierce little huntress?”

 

His thick fingers were tugging at her belt, pushing aside her jerkin and pants. 

 

“ _Rey_.” She gasped, and her shirt and jerkin fell away. Forgotten on the floor. 

 

He hummed and palmed her breasts with battle calloused hands. “ _A good name_.” 

 

Suddenly all of her qualms were waylaid, and she had no desires beyond laying with this man again. This time she intended to be knotted. It was the only thing that could truly satisfy the endless scald of heat. She need to be full of fat, pulsing flesh and warm, balmy come. Instinct demanded. 

 

She parted her lips but her entreaty morphed into a squeal as Ren hoisted her up and over her shoulder, “Come on then, _little Rey_. I can’t wait any longer.” 

 

She shuddered, at the promise in his voice and yelped as he dropped her onto his furs unceremoniously. His eyes were dark, pupils blown wide with want. She was bared from the waist up, and his gaze roamed over her; the flat plain of her stomach, the swell of her small breasts.

 

Rey cast her sight elsewhere in insecurity; she wasn’t pretty like so many other omegas. She didn’t paint her face and round her fingernails. Her breasts were small and her body was all sinew and harsh juts. No gentle curves of well placed fat to be seen. She didn’t look near as fertile as an omega should. 

 

“No.” Ren commanded, “Eyes on me, little huntress.” 

 

She was compelled to obey. And her lips parted as he knelt between her thighs, pressing an open mouthed kiss to the plain of her stomach. 

 

“You are strong,” he supplied as he unlaced her breeches, “So few omegas are strong.” 

 

“I— hah!” She gasped as he shoved her pants down her thighs and gave a long lick up the seam of her cunt, stopping to circle her clit with his tongue before moving downwards again. 

 

Kylo’s large hands held her thighs fast to the bed as Rey squirmed under his ministrations. She had never been _licked_ before. Her few sexual encounters had been brief and unextraordinary, always ending in hasty orgasms with little foreplay. 

 

He brought two thick fingers up and buried them in her to the knuckle, moaning at the slickness of her and the way her walls fluttered and tightened with rhythmic instinct. 

 

“Oh.” She mewled, raising her hips off the bed to meet his thrusts. 

 

He raised his head and she whined at the loss of contact, her clit left woefully unattended. Ren pressed an open mouthed kiss just above her mound, then grinned up at her. His face was covered in her slick, from nose to chin he glistened and dripped. 

 

“Just preparing you, little huntress,” his voice was smooth and deep enough to get her off to by itself, “Need you to come before I can fuck you for real.” 

 

“Why?” She pleaded, her hips rocking in a steady rhythm as he added a third finger to his plundering. 

 

“I’m going to knot you this time, Rey.” And then he descended on her again, tongue lapping and swirling and fingers thrusting. 

 

His tongue was rough and insistent at her clit and she keened, arms flying to clutch at the silk of his ebon hair and force him further into her pussy. He moaned against her over sensitive flesh and eased downward, letting his nose press firmly to her clit as his tongue joined his fingers. 

 

“Gods!” She howled, so close, her vision blurring as she rocketed towards her climax. But it wasn’t quite enough, she hung at the precipice gasping and moaning and begging for release. Then he curled his fingers _just so_ and she was sent barreling over the edge. 

 

Rey threw her head back in a silent scream, and she gripped the furs as wave after wave of violent, extraordinary pleasure whited her vision and seized her lithe body. 

 

“That’s it,” she heard Kylo croon at her, low and pleased, preening at the fruits of his labor, “You come so pretty, little huntress.” 

 

Rey whimpered as the pleasure waned, and rolled onto her side, covering her eyes with her forearm. All light felt too bright, all scent and sound too intense to contend with. All she wanted was Kylo’s hands on her, but he had moved away. 

 

She heard the rustle of fabric and the soft thump of clothing hitting the floor. Then his hands were on her again, large and firm and insistent. He flipped her onto her stomach and hoisted her ass into the air. 

 

“On your knees, little one,” he commanded, albeit is voice was soft and caring with an edge of desperation, “Need to fuck you now. Gonna knot you so hard that you can’t walk straight.” 

 

“ _Please_ ,” she needed a knot, fat and pulsing and so swollen it nearly pained her. She’d never had one before, but Gods above she knew what instinct demanded. 

 

Rey did as he bid, lifting her ass up and curving her back, presenting herself to him, ready to be mounted. His hands massaged the globes of her pert ass for a moment, his hungry eyes locked on the swollen wet flesh of her warm cunt. 

 

Rey keened and dropped her head onto the furs, supporting her upper half on her forearms. His thumbs rubbed her lower back soothingly one more time before his palms slid to her hips and he yanked her backwards onto the length of his cock. 

 

Rey screamed at the sensation, so full and stretched. He filled her up perfectly and her walls fluttered, struggling to contain his heft. She could feel every ridge and vein as she tightened and relaxed her muscles experimentally; entreating him to start thrusting. 

 

Ren grunted and shifted behind her, cursing. “ _Shit_ , your pussy is tight.” He gave a few cursory thrusts but was obviously unhappy with his current angle. 

 

“Not deep enough,” he groused, and Rey shuddered as she realized he wasn’t all the way in. “Here,” he swatted her ass and she moved forward a few inches, whining as his cock retreated. She felt empty and open. 

 

“Come back.” 

 

Ren ignored her and lifted one knee up and onto the furs, his other foot remained planted firmly on the floor, and then he was in her again. 

 

“Fuck!” He shouted, balls slapping against her skin, “That’s it, nice and deep, so fucking tight. Take it.”

 

Rey’s mouth fell open as he began to rock over her, his cockhead hitting her deep and rough as he rutted. She could hear nothing but her heartbeat thundering in her ears and his low grunts as he picked up his already brutal pace. 

 

She must’ve been making noise because he praised her, voice rumbling and sending shocks of sensation straight to her pussy, “That’s perfect, keep moaning for me, scream so everyone knows who you’re with, who’s fucking you so good.” 

 

He snapped his hips and she did, wailing into the furs as she gripped them with white knuckled hands. 

 

Kylo shifted their position, pushing her further into the furs so he could plant both of his knees on the makeshift bed, rocking deeper and harder. Her cunt squelched wetly and his sac slapped against her slick skin in a carnal symphony. 

 

“I’m close,” she choked as she felt the familiar burn begin to tingle in her abused cunt, “oh fuck, Kylo, don’t stop.” 

 

He disobeyed, halting behind her, cock seated deep but unmoving. “Fuck yourself on me, baby. Use my cock.” 

 

Rey gasped and followed, rocking her hips against his as quickly and deeply as she could, but it wasn’t quite right, it wasn’t hard enough, the fat head of him didn’t slam against her cervix in a hazy mix of pain and pleasure. 

 

Her only consolation was where his knot was beginning to swell, she could feel it as she fucked herself on his shaft, the ring of flesh pulsing and growing just beyond her range of movement. 

 

“Please, please, please, please,” she begged, rocking and clenching with her inner muscles, massaging his shaft so he huffed and moaned “Knot me!” 

 

“Tell me who you belong to. Who this tight little cunt belongs to,” he whispered, low and dangerous, “and then I’ll fuck you, knot you and fill you up.”

 

“You! It belongs to you. My pussy is yours, now please _fuck me_.”

 

He did, his broad hands smoothing up to her narrow waist and forcing her backwards into him. His thrusts were deep and brutal, and she could feel his knot beginning to catch at her entrance with each one. He pressed a hand to the small of her back, making her arch so he could find a deeper angle. 

 

“Perfect.” He growled, “Take it nice and deep. Gonna knot you so fucking hard, little huntress.”

 

And she came, screaming into the furs as her vision whited out, triggering Kylo’s own climax. His knot inflated and locked into her and his cock pulsed as his cum filled her, painting her walls white. 

 

“Ah— such a good girl.” He praised, spurting and spurting as his thrusts continued to rock her body, pushing her further and further up the furs. His knot rocked and swelled impossibly larger, pulsing as he flooded her. “You take it so good.” 

 

Rey preened under his attentions, and cast a glance back over her shoulder. His eyes were wide and hungry as he stared down at her watching where her sweet cunt stretched to accommodate him. 

 

Her own orgasm had ended, but his would continue for some time, knot pulsing and balls tight as he continued to fill her. He had sense enough to roll them onto their sides and Rey whined as his knot shifted inside of her. 

 

“Does it feel good?” He asked, and the feel of his warm breath at her nape raised gooseflesh over her skin. 

 

“Yeah.” She replied, fist clenching and unclenching in the furs. “How long will it keep— ah.” 

 

His cock gave another pulse and his hips twitched in another thrust. “Your heat is… _intense_. It might take a while. Relax, little huntress, enjoy it. I’m filling you up so good, nice and deep.” 

 

He jerked his hips again and she blustered, rocking back against him. 

 

“Feel how deep I am?” He boasted, “So deep in your tight little cunt.”

 

He was right. His cockhead was near to her cervix as he filled her in slow, steady pulses. 

 

After some time the waves of semen came at sporadic intervals, seemingly random. And Rey, overcome by unbidden curiosity reached down between her thighs, gently massaging his sac for a moment before her fingers glided past her entrance. They came away sticky, scooping up a surprising amount of his cum. 

 

“It’s leaking out.” She was disappointed, she wanted it all inside, that was where it belonged, instinct demanded.

 

He huffed his own displeasure and gave another rock, his hands kneading her breasts, “Eat it.” 

 

Rey flushed at the thought, but found herself eager to obey. She pressed her soiled fingers past her lips and sucked obscenely, looking back over her shoulder to he could watch. 

 

It was bitter, but she didn’t dislike it. Likely her heat made all of him appealing to her. 

 

At the lewd sight Ren pulsed again, more ribbons of him emptying into her needy pussy, still contracting around him, pulling more of his cum from his cock and knot. 

 

He reached between her thighs to rub at her clit, and she happily rocked into them before she realized exactly what he was doing. Alphas did this post coitus, a ploy to make the omega cum again and contract, taking more semen deeper into their lithe, fertile body. He wanted to impregnate her. Another demand of instinct. 

 

“No.” She swatted his hand away, as much as she might have wanted to cum again, she wasn’t on any sort of contraceptive. She would need to drink a tea tomorrow. “No babies.” 

 

He hummed, complying without complaint, seeming content to bury his face in her hair and ride out the rest of his orgasm. Moaning whenever his knot saw it fit to pulse and throb again. 

 

Finally it began to wane, and Rey gave a sigh as it slipped free. His softening member slid away, drenched in his own leavings, and his cum poured from her gaping pussy. 

 

This seemed to displease him, and he scooped it onto his fingers and pressed it back up inside of her. “Clench,” he ground out, “Keep it inside.” 

 

But she couldn’t, there was too much. So he settled on rubbing it into her breasts and thighs, coating her in his scent. 

 

“How long until it comes back?” She asked. 

 

Ren smiled against her skin, and pressed a reassuring kiss to her slickened belly. “ _Soon_.” He promised. 

 

Already she could feel it building again, hot and slick between her legs.


	3. Warmth and wet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another day of sex and sweat, followed by doubt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to delete and reupload this chapter. That's why you may have gotten two email notifications if you're subscribed. 
> 
> I'm sorry it's been so long. I've been in the midst of the worst writer's block I have EVER experienced, but I'm getting back into the swing of things now. 
> 
> Please check the end notes for some important info!!
> 
> Also warning for voyeurism this chapter. Hux gets an eye-full, poor boy.

That night was a blur of sex and sleep. Rey woke time and time again, only to mate frantically with Kylo Ren, and collapse back into a feverish, heat laden slumber. In the interums she dreamt; of open fields of swaying golden grass, of deep forests turned russet with autumn leaves. It was the trail south, to the place where her clan would winter once the clansmeet broke. 

 

Then she would wake again, momentarily reminded of the impossible; she couldn’t stay here, not beyond this heat. But the thought was quickly relegated to the back of her mind when Ren stirred beside her and flipped her onto her stomach, taking her again and again through the swealter and haze of the night. 

 

He always fucked her from behind, she realized the third time he laid his claim, but she didn’t have long to ponder why that might be. Kylo noticed that her focus had strayed and pressed two, thick fingers into her mouth, commanding her to _suck_ , and she was with him once more. 

 

The early the next morning she woke to him hoisting her up by her hips again, hard and ready for her. She was ready too, soaking and panting, even out of a dead sleep. The position was different this time. Still, he wouldn’t face her, but he maneuvered her to sit in his lap, back to his chest, and ground her down on his cock. 

 

He wasn’t so talkative as he had been, no dirty stream of consciousness fell from his full, plush lips. He only moaned and grunted and whispered her name, in an erotic cacophony of sounds. He was deeper this way, cock battering just right as he canted his hips to meet hers in quick, jerking thrusts. The curve of him intensified the sensation, the angle new, the brush of his tip just right within her. 

 

“ _Kylo_.” She mewled, and his broad hand ran down the curve of her spine, bending her at the waist. She leaned forward and braced herself against the bend of his knees, rocking back onto him as he rutted into her. She could feel it, the heavy press of his knot swelling against her entrance, catching against her but not quite holding. 

 

Rey hummed and rocked harder, biting her lip and gripping him tighter, nails biting into his pale skin. He huff and met her thrust for thrust, the scent of sex heady filling the air. 

 

“That’s it, almost…” He sucked in a stilted breath, hips stuttering to a halt beneath her as his knot caught and swelled. “ _Shit_ ,” He hissed as the initial waves took him. 

 

The warm rush of his cum within her was enough to send her careening over the edge, she howled and rocked backwards on him, seating herself further onto his knot as her head fell against his shoulder. He took her hips in his broad hands and rocked her through it until the pleasure waned and the shifting of his knot began to sting.

 

“Stop,” she whimpered, and he obliged without complaint. 

 

They sat in contented silence for a few blissful moments, locked together while he pulsed and twitched. Occasionally his hips would shift unbidden and she would whine at the movement while he moaned at the sensation of her cunt clenching. His hands trailed up her torso and he fondled her breasts as they waited for him to finish.

 

“I’ve never been fucked like this before,” she murmured, the back of her neck fit neatly to the curve of his shoulder. “It feels _really_ good.” 

 

He snorted into her hair, “That’s what heat is. Rut too. It’s a whole mess of slick and pheromones, but once you find a partner to sate it with… _it’s heaven._ ” 

 

Rey couldn’t help but agree; maybe it was the post orgasmic haze, or maybe she really was beginning to like him. It mattered little, soon enough she would need to move on. Heat be damned. This slip up couldn’t be repeated. She was an outcast. 

 

She glanced between her thighs, actually _seeing_ what their joining looked like for the first time. The position he had taken her in hadn’t provided much of a view of his sculpted body, but his dick… He was balls deep, of course, but still it was enticing. Rivulets of white had begun to leak around the base of his cock, just beneath the knot, and she swore she saw his sac _pulse_ when another wave shook through him. 

 

“Fuck.” She groaned, and collapsed back onto him again. 

 

She felt him smile where his lips brushed her shoulder, “Yea. Intense, isn’t it?”

⇊

He woke her again later in the day— between bouts of sex she seemed to only want sleep— aching for her. And she gladly gave herself to him, rolling onto her stomach so he could lay over her. Supporting himself on his elbows he snapped his hips and bit down on the nape of her neck, growling. She came hard, revelling in the primality of the act.

 

The squeeze of her cunt was enough to pull him over with her. He rutted, hips slapping deliciously against her ass until his knot caught and forced him to remain still, only able to jerk slightly and give gentle thrusts in an attempt to seat himself more deeply. 

 

They remained like that, locked, for longer than Rey would have liked; it seemed like his orgasm would _never_ end. Just when it would seem to slow, he would jerk and moan and it would continue on. When his teeth ghosted over the bend of her throat and down to the crook of her shoulder she let out a warning _hiss_. No biting, no mating marks. 

 

The incident only reminded her of what she was; outcast and alone. If he mated her he would come to regret it as soon as the truth was revealed, and it would be, it always was. 

 

Once they had _finally_ pulled apart, Kylo called for one of his thralls to prepare a warm bath, and another to brew Rey a kettle of moon tea. _No babies_ she had said, and he was true to that. It pleased her. 

 

He didn’t bother to dress as the girls scampered about, doing his bidding. They were young and beautiful, and the jealousy that flared in Rey’s chest was immediate. The stories of him lying with every omega in his clan, of the hundred bastard sons and daughters, were they true? Had he sired children on these women? No, thralls were those captured in raids, from the villages beyond the bounds of their homeland. Slaves. Her clan didn’t keep them, though she supposed that the maintaining of a caste system was similar in its calibre of cruelty. Thralls were beneath his station, and still, his pavilion smelled nothing of other omegas, only them, of their sex and sweat. 

 

Bath drawn, Kylo shooed off the thralls and tended to the tea himself. Rey watched closely over the steaming water; wary of sabotage, a desperate attempt to make her stay. But he did nothing untoward, mixing in each herb dutifully before leaving the concoction to simmer. He strode over and sank into the water opposite her. 

 

The tub was ornate. Constructed with solid, polished wood and inlaid with golden patterns. Another trophy she figured, won from some far of land, taken from a sacked city as a reminder of his victory before he moved on to pillage the next. She wanted to ask what exotic place this had come from, but the burn between her thighs had flared once again, insistent and demanding of immediate attention. 

 

He seemed to understand, and reached for her. Despite the size of the tub their legs were still tangled, and maneuvering into a comfortable position was difficult. They settled on the same one they had fucked in the night before, but it was still difficult to find an descent angle. His cock bobbed awkwardly under the water and Rey giggled at the absurdity of it.

 

“It’s rude to laugh at a man’s penis,” he jested, but his snark tapered off into a low groan as she finally sank down onto him, the wet warmth of her enveloping him and squeezing exquisitely around his shaft. He ran his hands down the curve of her back gripping her hips, preparing to rut into her.

 

Then the heavy, silken flap that served as an entrance to his abode was flung open, and a tall, thin, sour looking man strode in. Pompous, he grimaced at the sight of them. 

 

“Really Ren, at a time like this?” 

 

“Rut isn’t something that can be ignored, _Hux_. Not once it’s already begun.” Rey, in a moment of unexpected clear headedness, tried to scramble away from Kylo and cover herself, but he kept his grip on her hips firm, and rocked her onto his cock obscenely. 

 

She bit her lip to stifle her moan. She tasted blood on her tongue as the red headed man, Hux, prattled on. 

 

“I take it this little whore is the one who triggered this… _unfortunate_ episode?” His eyes appraised her briefly, passing over the swell of her heaving breast as Ren worked her onto him shamelessly. She could see contempt in his icy eyes, and knew that to him she was less than vermin. 

 

Kylo bared his teeth and snapped, “She isn’t a _whore_ , Hux. But I wouldn’t expect the likes of _you_ to understand what this is.” He gave a hard thrust to punctuate his statement and Rey squealed, wet fingers grasping at the slick edge of the tub. 

 

He was right, Hux did smell of beta, plain and unobtrusive, hardly noticeable next to the musk of alpha or the tang of omega. The man wouldn’t understand rut or heat, how all consuming the need to mate became. 

 

“Fine.” Hux righted himself, running a thin hand through his hair and sniffing at them in disgusted indignation. Rey noted the flush to his cheeks, and the hard-on that pressed insistently against the lacings of his trousers. She would have laughed if Ren weren’t pounding her beyond any capability of speech. 

 

“I’ll be taking my leave. Come speak to me once you’re done rutting your bitch, Ren. We’ve important matters to discuss.” He strode out and Kylo snarled into her ear. 

 

“Bastard.” 

 

“Fuck,” She gasped, fingers finding purchase on the tub before slipping again, leaving her entirely at Ren’s mercy. 

 

“I hate—

 

“Shut up and fuck me.” She caught his wrist in a small, shaking hand and dug her nails into his flesh. 

 

He hissed and picked up his pace, increasing from frantic to brutal. It almost hurt, the way the fat head of him beat against her cervix as he angled himself _just_ right. But heat dulled the sting, slick eased his passage, and Rey keened at the heady mix of pain and pleasure. 

 

“I’ll fuck you,” he snarled in her ear, “But I won’t shut up.” 

 

Rey palmed her breasts and squeaked as two, thick fingers began to circle her clit. 

 

“You like that he saw us, don’t you?” Ren teased, “You like that he saw you begging for it, panting for my dick, _my knot_.” 

 

“Mhmm!” Words were lost to her. His unoccupied hand shifted from her hip to clutch at her throat, bending her neck enough to nip at her lips. 

 

“Wanna— _fuck_ — wanna know what he’s doing right now?” His hips jerked and she could feel where his heavy knot was swelling under her, she clenched her pussy around him, entreating him to finish, she wanted it _so bad_. “He’s run back to his tent, tailed tucked and cock hard. I bet he’s touching himself right now, wishing it were him fucking you, buried in your tight little cunt.” 

 

“Hah!” She panted, face red and ruddy. His fingers circled and circled, the delicious pressure of them raising her higher and higher. His knot throbbed against her opening, nearly catching before slipping away again. 

 

“He can’t have you,” He bucked and his knot caught, swelling and locking her to him, but still he kept rutting and Rey yowled at the pull of it, “You’re _mine_. Your sweet little cunt is _mine_. All mine.” 

 

The final ‘mine’ was more a strangled sound than a word. His cock pulsed and he spilled, taking Rey with him. 

 

She cried out. Loud enough for anyone nearby to hear. Vision whitening as his fat knot stretched her out and his fingers worked against her clit, fucking her through her climax. Once she came down it because clear that it would be another long knotting. Kylo spent most of it huffing and groaning with the intensity of his orgasm. His hips shifting and her walls massaging his dick. 

 

“God I’m so full,” Rey murmured as the water clouded. She reached between her thighs and cupped his heavy sac, still tight to his body as he pumped and twitched. 

 

“Do all alphas cum this much?” 

 

“Hnng…” he grunted as he pulsed again, and she could have sworn that his knot inflated _further_ if that were even possible. “I— _gods_ — I don’t know. I just… you feel so good.” 

 

Her cunt contracted again and he choked, “ _Keep doing that_.” 

 

She snorted, “If I do this might never end. Does it feel good? To orgasm for that long?” 

 

“It isn’t...” he huffed, “It’s not like one long orgasm, it’s like a dozen mini ones. If it goes on too long it starts to hurt.” As if on cue he spurted again with a muffled groan. 

 

Rey whimpered at the sensation, “Well, best to hurry then. The water’s getting cold, and I need to drink that tea before you fuck me again.” He’d cum in her more times than she could count, fertile as heat made an omega, waiting this long was risky. Plenty of his seed was already rutted into her womb, she was certain of it. When he spilled himself the head of him was at her cervix, more likely than not. 

 

“Not sure if you— _ah_ — noticed, but this one is particularly intense. I don’t have much control over it.” More cum. 

 

Rey hummed her understanding and began to gently massage his sac, running the pads of her fingers over the base of his penis as he came and came, hoping to hurry things along. Finally, just as the knot began to wane, she was able to pull off of him and step out of the tub. He remained still, panting and sweating. 

 

“My dick hurts.” He lamented, hand drifting beneath the water to cup himself, “Gods that felt so good. I would live in you, if I could, little huntress.” 

 

Rey ignored him and ladled a healthy amount of the foul smelling, brown brew into a cup, and drank deeply of it. Not caring that it scalded her tongue. Ren slowly drew himself from the fouled water and meandered over to where she sat, plopping down beside her on the ornate rug, another trophy no doubt. 

 

He eyed the tea contemptuously as she gagged down another cup. “Does it not appeal to you at all? The thought of me fucking a baby into you? That’s what I’m meant to do, what _you’re_ meant to do.” 

 

“No. It doesn’t.” The rush of heat between her thighs belied the refusal, “And _I’m_ not meant to do anything. I’m not a slave to my biology.” 

 

He huffed and reclined onto an elbow, raising a dark eyebrow at her, “Now you’re starting to sound like one of the lamb men.” 

 

Lamb men. That was what the clans called the ‘civilized’ folk of the west and far south. They denied their instinct entirely, denied the gifts they had been given and forsake the gods of their ancestors for one who demanded piety and purity. 

 

“Excuse me for not wanting to _breed_ with you.” Gods how she wanted him to breed her; heat buffing out common sense. She could picture it, her with one babe on the breast, her belly fat with another. That was what omegas were meant to do, once they had mated. Their alpha lived to serve and protect them, and in turn they bore their alphas young. Animal, the lamb men called it. Natural, the clans responded. 

 

She knew he could smell her lie, but he was kind enough to let it be. Instead he reach around the kettle and produced a silver tray of food. Fruit and bread, honey and biscuits, and a whole roasted rabbit, brown skin crisp and spiced. She hadn’t realized he’d called for food as well. 

 

“Take your pick,” he offered, nonchalant, trying to mask the gesture behind the statement. Alphas cared for their omegas, fed them, protected them. He wouldn’t have eaten first if she implored him to. 

 

She only picked at the offerings, despite the hunger pangs that stirred in her stomach. The foods were rich, far more than anything she had ever tasted before. If she ate too much she would become ill, unused to the quality of it. 

 

“Eat.” He pushed the tray towards her before returning to suck the marrow from the rabbit’s leg bone. When she didn’t comply his brow knitted, and he lifted an apple slice from the platter, “Why aren’t you eating.” 

 

That was the moment, the most opportune for admitting the truth. She was no one. But she couldn’t force the words past her tongue, they caught and died in her throat. Rey didn’t want to weather the remainder of this heat alone, and if he learned the reality of her station, he would surely cast her out. 

 

_Cast out the outcast_. A dark irony. 

 

“I—” she floundered for an answer, “I’m… I want you to fuck me again!” It was true enough, her cunt was already slickening, labia reddening and swelling, ready to receive him. She had spoken too loudly, too enthusiastically, and his eyes narrowed in suspicion. But, ultimately, he scented her and was unable to resist the wet warmth between her thighs. 

 

He dropped his meal and tackled her backwards onto the rug, nipping playfully at her throat before flipping her onto her stomach and taking her again. 

 

Rey moaned and gasped and rocked back against him, but through it all, despite the pleasure he gave and the fire in her loins, she was certain of one thing; this couldn’t last.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay a few things:
> 
> 1) I want to apologize again for disappearing like I did. Life and block got in the way. I've been working on a minific that I think some of you might enjoy? It's canonverse and more serious than this, but it helped to cure me of this block. I'd really appreciate if you gave it a read: [link](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14529474/chapters/33570453)
> 
> 2) I know that Kylo is SUPER OOC as of right now. Just bear with me, a plot twist is coming that explains everything. 
> 
> 3) I used the word 'primality' in this chapter. thefreedictionary.com defined is as 'the state of being primal'. Merriam-Webster did not. So idk. I like my use of it.
> 
> Thank you for bearing with me and taking the time to read this. I hope that you enjoyed the update. <3


	4. Run

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An escape.

Rey wasn’t entirely certain how much time had passed between the beginning of her heat and the subtle waning of the fire between her thighs, but she felt more in control than she had in days, no longer beholden to the demands of her body, the animal within her caged once more. What she was certain of was the subtle haze of fading sleep lifting from her eyes. She was laid out on her stomach, a lynx pelt bunched up under her eyes, obscuring her nose and mouth as she observed her surroundings through the plush forest of fur. 

 

She was warm, covered in pelts and a heavy woven blanket. Between her thighs she was sticky, she shifted uncomfortably, wanting another chance to bathe. But more demanding of her attention than the discomfort was the lack of a pale, snoring mass beside her, radiating heat. Despite the furs and the sweat beading at the nape of her neck, she felt cold without his proximity. 

 

Something small, meek, and primal stirred within her, bubbling anxiety deep in her gut. _He doesn’t want me anymore, I’ve displeased him, my alpha—_

 

Her panic ceased as the deep rumble of his baritone met her ears. She shifted on the furs, sitting upwards in all of her nakedness only to find Hux was also present in the tent. She startled and scrambled for a pelt, desperate to cover herself before they noticed she had awoken. 

Neither of them acknowledged her presence, locked in heated debate over something that could hardly matter in comparison to the mounting heat between her quivering thighs.

 

“We need to leave now,” Hux insisted, nasal chord strained with his usual anal impatience, “We want to catch them before the first snowfall, far from the Lamb villages.”

 

Rey thought of the Lamb men, with their little wooden houses and great stony temples, denying their natures in favor of their single god, and was reminded further of how badly she needed Kylo. He sat at a small, polished wooden table, clothed only in a pair of black satin trousers. They were too tight; she could see the outline of his erection straining against the fabric. He could smell her, he knew that she needed him, and yet he ignored her. 

 

“We wait until I’m finished here.” He groused, “I’m in rut. I can hardly sit astride a horse like this, let alone lead an army. My bitch is almost through her heat, it’ll last only a day or two longer at most. Winter’s not like to come between now and then.” 

 

“Snoke will hear of your insolence.” Hux spat. Rey half expected him to stomp his foot like an impudent child. 

 

“I’m sure he will.” Kylo replied, taciturn. She couldn’t help but notice the sheen of sweat that shimmered over the bare expanse of his broad chest. 

“He might even think that you’re stalling, that you’re hesitant to end Leia.” 

 

All at once, it seemed, Kylo stood, shoving back against the table and sending his chair flying as he bore down on Hux, hulking over the scrawny, sour faced man. 

 

“Never,” his voice shook in cold fury, “NEVER speak that name in my presence you insolent worm. Do you understand me?” A large calloused hand rose to grip at Hux’s collar, lifting him from the woven rugged floor ever so slightly. Behind his blazing black eyes there was a threat. 

 

“Y-yes.” Hux gulped, and Kylo dropped him. He stumbled when his heels once again touched the earth, struggling to regain his balance, looking wholly undignified for such a pompous little cretin. 

 

“Get out.” Kylo’s tone was hollow, tired almost, like the mention of that singular name had drained him of all his will to fight. 

 

Leia was a woman’s name, Rey thought, and though it felt vaguely familiar she was more concerned with what it meant to him. Another female, another omega? Was this Leia his mate?

Rey shuddered and whimpered at the thought, her pathetic sound recapturing the attention of her partner. He strode across the room and leapt onto the furs beside her, landing on his knees, muscular thighs and thick cock straining against his trousers. 

 

“I hate that little wretch.” He growled, low and warning, aggressive in a way that the gentleness with which he caressed her knuckles belied. 

 

“Who’s Leia,” the quaver of her voice was childlike, pathetic, but beneath the anxiety there was yearning, and Kylo seized upon it, lurching for her, pinning her wrists above her head and brushing the jut of his aquiline nose along the curve of her forehead, her cheek. 

 

“Don’t worry about her,” he breathed, reaching between them with one large hand to force his waistband down his thighs, penis bouncing heavy and free between them, flush with blood, a thick vein pulsing along the side of it, “She’s no one.” 

 

_So am I._ Rey thought, then kissed his lips. 

 

Their first kiss. In all the heated, frantic sex they had shared they had never once kissed. She had presumed it to be another one of the odd, seemingly arbitrary boundaries Kylo set in place. Only ever fucking her from behind, never letting those full, plush lips touch her own. 

 

Momentarily frozen under her kiss, he stilled beneath her gentle touch. Where her eyes had fluttered close in appreciation of his soft mouth and sweet breath, she was certain his were wide and watery with apprehension. 

 

With a soft, wet _smack_ she pulled away, heart racing, chest flooded with heat and anxiety over what she had just done. The paradigm had shifted. It was his move now, his turn to react to this transgression. She already regretted such a monumental lapse in judgement, to kiss was to draw him closer, to kiss was _dangerous_. To kiss was to make him desirable in a way that he hadn’t been just moments previous. He was suddenly so much more beautiful there in the faded morning light, cast pale pink by the red silk of his tent.

 

Then he kissed her back, and she melted. They were deep, laguid, longing kisses that pushed her deep into the pelts as his grip on her wrists tightened, between each he whispered her name like a prayer and she thought she might cry from the beauty of it.

 

_Rey, Rey, Rey._

 

In the deep rolling timbre of his voice she meant something, under his large body she was _someone_ , and as he took himself in hand and pressed his cock into her shaking form, she pretended for a moment that he could take away her designation— _outcast_ — she pretended for one painfully fleeting moment that she could allow herself to love him. 

 

Then she was lost in him, his mouth, his body, his eyes, the sharp sweet thrust of his dick inside of her. Ankles locked behind the small of his back she gyrated her hips in tandem with his own, urging him deeper, the wet _slap_ of his hips against hers twisting and mingling in the air with her breathy moans and his deep sighs, an erotic cacophony, a secret meant only for their ears. 

 

“Harder,” she whimpered, nails raking the broad expanse of his back, feeling his muscles clench and ripple beneath the pads of her fingers. 

 

Kylo obliged her, shifting over her and rising up onto his hands, hips still slotted deliciously against her own, and then he went _harder_. Rey squealed at each pointed thrust, sliding up the bed, furs parting in her wake with the sheer force of it, every turgid inch of him striking fast and deep and leaving her wailing and empty on each egress. Her fingers curled like talons around his forearms as his knot began to swell, catching against her well used pussy on each furious stroke. 

 

“Fuck!” Rey shouted, canting her hips against him, somehow managing to take him deeper, the fat head of him beating against her cervix, tantalizing, _gods_ she needed him to cum. 

 

“Do it,” she half sobbed in pleasure induced delirium, “Do it, please do it alpha.”

 

“Do— _hng_ ,” his hips stuttered as she squeezed him with her walls, eager to feel him flooding her, “Do what?”

 

“Knot me,” she gasped, and he was leaning over her, taking a rosy pink nipple between his lips, “Cum in me. Fill me up, please, Kylo, alpha, _knot me_.” 

 

Only a sliver of dark brown iris was visible in his eyes as he huffed and flushed from his neck to the tantalizing ‘v’ that lead to his cock. The knot at the base of him swelled further, making her whimper at its size as he rutted into her until, finally, it caught, pulsing within her. 

 

Rey could feel ever throbbing inch of his pulsing dick inside her, and beyond it, erupting from the tip of him, from his knot and balls beneath, the balm of his cum against the ache he had left inside of her. She was lost in the sensation of it, their shared climax, the feel of his tongue laving at her nipple, followed by the sharp twist of the air against her pebbling flesh as he released her breast and lunged for her mouth. 

 

It was more tongue and teeth than kiss, but she hardly cared when he pulsed so deliciously between her thighs, still rutting and grunting animalistically into her mouth. 

 

“Let me mate you,” he snarled, breaking their kiss and nuzzling into the crook of her neck, over top of her left scent gland, “Let me mate you, make you mine, put a baby inside of you.”

 

Her cunt clenched at the thought, the hedonistic image that flashed behind her eyes; of her, naked, crouched low to the ground, primal in her beauty. One babe suckling her breast, her belly fat with another, a dark, moon shaped scar adorning her left shoulder, her mating bite. Perfect, in a way. 

 

But, as his teeth scraped along the delicate skin of her throat, and his body let loose another white hot torrent of spend, as if to persuade her with the sheer sensation, she found herself recalling all of the reasons why they _couldn’t_. 

 

“No.” She hissed, sharply, giving his broad shoulders a pointed shove. “No mating, not yet.”

 

She added the second part so that he might relent for the day, hoping that there was a chance. But there wasn’t a chance, he would discover that eventually. Sooner, rather than later, if the cool normalcy between her legs was any indication. 

 

When his knot waned and he pulled free of her, cum spilling over the furs and sheets, he shifted his weight over her and kissed her again, slowly and with little urgency, as if he were savoring the taste of her. 

 

“Soon, little huntress, soon you will be mine,” he breathed against her skin. 

 

She shuddered under him, and asked, meekly, “Could I have another bath?”

⇊

After a day of sex and sensual kisses Rey crawled between the sheets and furs wet haired and clean after a warm, uneventful bath. Sleep found her quickly for once, all of the worries having been steamed or fucked from her mind, a pair of strong arms wrapped loosely around her waist. _One more night_ , she told herself, _One more, perfect night, and then I’ll go._

 

But true rest eluded her as she dreamt. 

 

_Snowflakes drifted lazily down from a hazy grey sky. Sun obscured by clouds, Rey savored the cold bite of the open air in her nostrils, the smell of horses and campfire as they traveled in a long, slow procession. She, along with the other outcasts, brought up the rear. She held out a hand to catch a single, fragile flake on the tip of a finger, and watched as it melted. The first of the late autumn snows. Winter would be on them soon._

 

_“We’d best pick up the pace,” an old man, another outcast like herself, sidled up beside her, his watery grey eyes matching they sky they gazed at, “Before we know, it’ll be three feet deep, even the horses will struggle with it.”_

 

_Rey hummed thoughtfully, shifting a toe over the cold, hard packed earth, trampled by a thousand feet before her own. Outcasts weren’t meant to speak to anyone, not even each other, but they did anyways. One could only survive so long in total isolation, and at present there was no one around— save other outcasts— to hear. But before she could formulate a reply a shriveled old woman, with hair long enough to cover the flanks of the mule she rode, interceded, “I don’t want to hear none of that from any of ya’s now. Leia has seen the gods and asked for their favor, surely our journey will be safe, she has never failed us before._

 

_“Yes.” Rey nodded in agreement. Never had their holy woman led them astray. It was whispered that she carried the blood of the gods themselves in her veins. That even the outcasts looked upon her with favor spoke to her abilities. It was the holy people who cast them out to begin with._

 

_Leia. Her clan. The long journey south for the winter._

 

_Leia_. 

 

She shot bolt upright in bed, shaking and shivering, body sticky with cold sweat and stale semen. Kylo laid still beside her, undisturbed, breathing slow and steady into his pillow. 

 

_Leia_. Leia was the holy woman of Rey’s clan. In the thick of her heat the meaning of the name had eluded her, but now it was abundantly clear. Leia was the leader of her people. And the words Kylo had spoken… what had passed between he and Hux, how she had encountered his war party in the forest that day, so near to the cliffs that overlooked her clan’s encampment… He meant to wage war on them, annihilate them, slaughter them. 

 

Rey scrambled away from him, falling naked to the floor with a muffled _thump_. Something like betrayal twisted low and cold in her gut and she rose tremulously to her feet, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand. 

 

She sniffed and choked down the tears, hating that she had allowed herself to grow so… _attached_ to the idea of this man in just a few short days. Wrongly, she knew, she blamed her omega, a needy, mewling thing weak with want for an alpha and a knot. In truth, she feared how lonely she would be once she slipped away into the night. 

 

Still, she didn’t hesitate. She found her clothing folded and cleaned, tucked neatly away in a small, ornate wardrobe, along with several other articles of women's clothing, all suspiciously sized to fit her. She lied to herself, that these must have been remnants of his previous conquests, that he simply had a type, and that this wasn’t some sickening show of domesticity on his part. 

 

She dressed in her own then tossed the rest into a rucksack she scrounged from his belongings. Try as she might, she was unable to find her weapons. Knife and dagger and bow all seemingly having vanished from existence, so she settled for some petty thievery. Snatching bow one off of a rack of many, knowing he wouldn’t miss it, she shouldered a quiver of arrows and made for the door, slipping silently into the night. Leaving the beautiful pale form of Kylo Ren behind in the dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow it's been a while, huh? 
> 
> I know the smut was a little more 'feelsy' this time around. I hope you don't mind?
> 
> I hope you guys enjoyed this impromptu Thanksgiving update. I've no intentions of abandoning this fic, have no fear, but sometimes life can make hobbies like writing a bit difficult. 
> 
> I'll be updating more frequently from now on, I hope.


	5. thief in the night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey makes her final escape.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year!!
> 
> Short update :D

Upon emerging from Ren’s pavilion Rey had made a quick, desperate, yet skillful flight through the patchwork of darkness and fire circles that filled the cut into the early hours of the morning. Despite her ordeal she quickly regained her bearings and her hunter’s step, moving silently in the shadows. 

 

She feared with each compounding foot of distance she put between them, that Kylo would wake and find her missing. The alpha hardly seemed the type to gracefully accept rejection. But the shouts of a search party, the baying of hounds, never came. All that followed her through the darkness was uncertainty and the echoes of sweet, stupid nothings. 

 

Then she came to the edge of her own camp, and all of her turmoil froze in her chest, then melted, giving way to suffocating fear. Where the camp had been just a week prior, there was nothing but dust and refuse, and pits of ash and cinder where great bonfires had once roared. She allowed herself only a brief moment of grief and rage at the discovery that she had been left behind. An outcast, truly. Why would they wait for someone whose name was forbidden to speak? 

 

_Go back to him._ Her omega whispered, and for a moment Rey pondered it. If she returned now perhaps her brief flight would never be discovered. She could wake him with her mouth on his cock, and once he was sufficiently hard she would mount him, fuck him, let him put a child in her like he so desperately yearned to do. Rey could become the mewling, wanton omega she had always loathed, the very thing that lived deep in her chest unleashed and given full control. 

 

It would be so easy to give in, but Rey wasn’t the sort. She was an outcast, had been for as long as she could remember, and as long as that had been she had _survived_. Beyond that. Her parents had been of this clan. The truth of her status had traveled southeast with her people, and it was a truth she fully intended to uncover. 

 

Steeling herself, she doubled backward. Somewhere behind her the first dusky pinks of daybreak began to splash over the horizon. Kylo Ren would soon stir, he often woke with the sun. Her window of opportunity was dwindling. She no longer bothered trying to disguise herself in shadow, it was a mad dash back to the camp where she had weathered her heat. There she new horses were bound to posts, heads ducked as they dozed or grazed on dew laden blades of grass. Only ever having ridden a burrow, and briefly at that, Rey felt her stomach twist with anxiety as she once again neared Kylo’s tent. The camp was coming to life around her, fires were being extinguished with great casks of water, tents were being pulled to the earth, sending up great billows of dust and ash. 

 

They were preparing to march. 

 

Rey swallowed hard and then—

 

“And where does Kylo’s little whore think she’s going?” A familiar, nasal voice breathed behind her, close enough to stir the hair on the nape of her neck. 

 

Rey didn’t need to turn to know it was Hux. 

 

“I’m leaving,” Rey replied, “The War Chieftain no longer has any use for me, my heat has ended, so has his rut.” 

 

Hux hummed thoughtfully behind her, then replied with such malice in his wretched voice that a shiver shot straight down Rey’s spine. Her toes curled into the leather of her boots, she could _hear_ his sneer as he whispered, “That is not what he and I had discussed, little whore. You were to be his mate, were you not? Bear his pups? Come!” He seized her bicep with bruising force and yanked her towards the silken tent, towards Kylo, “Let us ask him then.”

 

But through it all Rey had been watching a beautiful, long legged, red roan stallion graze docily in the nearby grass. He was half tacked, with a small blanket thrown over the curve of his back, a bridle secured over his face, mane braided and tail bobbed. 

 

Rey hissed under Hux’s touch and spun, using her off hand to shove the willowy man off balance, loosening his grip enough to allow her to break free. She tugged her hunting knife off of her belt as she bolted for the horse, who now gazed on at the ruckus with mild disinterest in his dark brown eyes. 

 

“Ren!” Hux squealed from behind her, struggling in the dirt. 

 

The horse never moved to evade her despite her speed and apparent aggression, and she wondered if he somehow sensed her desperation, or understood her longing for freedom. Maybe he didn’t belong here either, too pretty for such a wretched place. 

 

When she reached him she slashed the tether that tied him to his post, and threw her pack haphazardly over his rump, securing it with two rusty carabiner clips that were attached to his blanket. As she struggled onto his back she heard a great, deep bellow from behind her. 

 

“Rey!” 

 

“Fuck,” She hissed, fist clenching around her knife as she struggled onto the horse’s back. He had already begun to move, shifting and nickering anxiously as Kylo’s proximity increased, scenting the alpha hormones in the air. “Hold on, _please_.” 

 

Finally she managed to seat herself, and for a fleeting beautiful moment she thought she was free, from the back of her mount her view of the cut was nearly unobscured, and she had just pressed her heels into the horse’s sides when something, _someone_ caught her foot. 

 

“ _Rey_ ,” Kylo’s voice cracked with rage, and when she met his eyes they were like black fire, licking into her spirit, scorching her soul. _Our alpha is angry_! Her omega lamented, and the compulsion to go to him was strong, “You don’t get to _leave_.” 

 

Rey shook her head hard, refusing to utter so much as a word as her knife nearly burned a hole in her palm. She aimed for the scar that bisected his disgustingly beautiful face, and that aim proved true. The serrated edge of her hunting knife carved him in two, and he let go with the shock and pain of it, clutching his face. 

 

Guilt seized her insides as she watched from above, but she would not let it stop her. She cast one final glance down at the man who had been her first knot and brush with romance. A gorgeous mistake that she would regret until the end of her days. Then she dug her heels into her stallion and shouted, “Go!” Just as more of Kylo’s clansmen began to emerge to discern the source of all the noise. 

 

The horse snorted and his hooves kicked up chunks of dirt as he leapt forward, barrelling through the camp, not bothering to slow as man, child, and war hound alike dove from her path. Rey never looked back, not once, not even as arrows flew past her head and her stallion’s flanks, not when she heard Kylo screaming her name; voice ragged with a dangerous mixture of desperation and unbridled rage. 

 

Eventually the barrage ended, and the voices faded, the bellowing of hounds died away and she was left with nothing but the thundering of heart and hooves and their shared ragged breaths. 

 

She didn’t slow their pace until they reached the southern mouth of the cut, a steady incline upwards towards a plain that gave way to forest which would again give way to rolling plains, this time dotted with Lamb villages where she could stop to supply herself properly. Around them the cliffs grew less sheer and jagged until they were only small hills, negligible compared to the bluffs of the cut. 

 

Rey finally gave a gentle tug on the reigns and her mount huffed gratefully as he slowed to a steady trot, cooling off from their desperate flight. 

 

“Thank you,” Rey murmured, leaning forward to stroke his sweaty neck affectionately, “You might have saved my life today.” 

 

The horse didn’t offer any sort of acknowledgment and Rey chistized herself silently for talking to an animal. The rest of the day was quiet, peaceful, accompanied by the chatter of birds and the rustle of autumn leaves. 

 

Still, the shadow of Kylo Ren loomed behind her, and Rey knew every moment was precious. She resolved to ride through the night.

⇊

Rey wasn’t certain as to when in her heat her clan had departed the cut, but she now suspected it was earlier rather than later. She had hoped she might catch up to the rear of the caravan in the sprawl of the great forest. She found nothing but long dead fires and horse shit covered in flies.

 

At dusk on the second day Rey could feel her horse beginning to wither beneath her, exhaustion setting in after so many ceaseless hours of movement. She supposed that made sense, the horse had no personal stake in this pilgrimage, his bloodstream wasn’t pumping hot and hard with heady adrenaline. 

 

Once she spotted a tree that seemed to give sufficient cover from the setting sun and any preying eyes, she slid off of the stallion’s back and groaned as her saddle sore muscles ached in ways she hadn’t known were possible. A stream babbled a few feet from her chosen location, and the horse wandered over, taking great gulps of the cool, clear water. 

 

“Go on then,” she said, knowing that he couldn’t understand but beginning to feel the loneliness of her isolation, “Drink up, you deserve it, Bee.” She had taken to calling him that after a bee had stung him on the ass as they crossed a field of wildflowers midway through their first day. His panicked gallop had put them off course for several hours and earned him the teasing nickname. 

 

Her stomach rumbled and Rey sighed. She hadn’t brought any food with her, she would have to hunt or forage for a meal. Taking the moment to finally examine her stolen bow, Rey gaped; it was beautiful; supple and carved from wood so dark it was nearly black. It was engraved from end to end in deep swirling patterns, some of which were inlaid with a fine silver that shimmered when it caught the beams of the setting sun. She swallowed, something like shame twisting in her gut for having stolen such a fine instrument. But Kylo had stolen it as well, its original owner was likely dead, perhaps this was recompense for his crimes. 

 

The bow would see no use tonight. She didn’t want to wander far from her makeshift campsite and the distant crack of thunder informed her that a fire wouldn’t keep for long, she would have no way to cook any kill she made. So Rey scrounged the forest floor and underbrush for edibles and eventually came up with a few handfuls of wild strawberries and onions. The meal might have seemed meager to some, but for Rey, a woman who had wrestled with starvation for the entirety of her short life, it was a bounty. The strawberries were a bit sour, and the onions too tough, but she hardly minded when her belly had been growling so insistently, her body still recovering from her heat.

 

She happily munched on her harvest while Bee grazed nearby. She had tied his reins to a low hanging bough to keep him from wandering. The animal hardly seemed to mind, pawing at the substrate with his hoof then pulling up thick tufts of forest grass with his teeth. 

 

Once night fell and only soft beams of pearly moonlight broke through the canopy— the storm having skirted around them, leaving them blissfully dry— Rey laid out the saddle blanket like a sleeping mat and settled in the center of it; sprawling on her back, sighing as her limbs became sleep heavy and her lids wilted like the late summer wildflowers. Somewhere nearby Bee’s breathing had already evened out.

⇊

Her sleep was deep and dreamless, so much so that not even Bee’s nervous pawing and snorting could wake her. It was the thunder of hooves and the shouts of men that roused her from her slumber. She woke with a shout, flying to her feet, stumbling blindly for her horse but finding him nowhere. His reins had been cut from the branch.

 

Seething, ready for a fight, Rey managed to snatch up her bow and knock and arrow, spinning as the mounted party circled her. She was surrounded, there would be no escape, only death. 

 

She had taken aim at one of the riders when a familiar voice thundered from behind her, loud, commanding, and blood chilling. 

 

“Drop your weapon, thief!” 

 

Rey spun on her heel, entirely committed to landing an arrow between Kylo Ren’s beautiful eyes before he had the chance to reclaim his bow. But he was already on her, having dismounted while her back was turned. He tackled her to the cold, dewy earth, wrestling the bow from her hands while she struggled against him. 

 

He pried the black wood from her fingers and tossed it aside, pressing a knee against her pelvis to hold her in place and pinning her wrists above her head in a single broad hand. Rey bared her teeth and snarled at him, and his dark eyes narrowed at the challenge. 

 

“Who are you and what are you doing in possession of a stolen horse?” He groused, gritting his teeth as she struggled against him. 

 

Sod the fucking horse, she had stolen one of his prized weapons!

 

“What the fuck are you—

 

The words caught in her throat. Where was his scar? Where was the wound she had so graciously given him? His face was pale and dotted with sparse few moles, otherwise unmarred. 

 

“... _Kylo_.” 

 

The world fell quiet around them, the men holding their breaths, even the horses seemed to still in the darkness at the mention of his name. 

 

Almost Kylo’s hands tightened painfully around her wrists and he took a long hard sniff of the air, scenting her. This man was an alpha. 

 

“How do you know that name?” He shouted, spittle striking her face, causing her to wince, “How do you know my brother?” 

 

This man was an alpha, just like his brother, just like Kylo Ren.

 

Rey screamed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's the plot twist my dudes. Please please _please_ share your thoughts.


	6. Outcast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meet Leia... and Luke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's for Daniella <3

His name was Ben, she learned. Ben who was the brother of the man she had just spent a week fucking. The _estranged_ brother, apparently. Or, perhaps Kylo was the estranged one, where he had seemed almost entirely alone Ben repeatedly referenced his mother and uncle as they journeyed ever deeper into the forest. That his mother was Leia Organa-Solo had nearly knocked Rey out of the saddle. If Leia, her clan leader, was Ben’s mother, that meant… 

 

“Of course my brother would sleep with an _outcast_ ,” he spat the word like poison, “He always had a soft spot for the weak, mostly because they’re easily manipulated,” he cast his suspicious sable gaze over his shoulder, back to where she sat, hands tied in front of her on Bee’s back, “Like that little _spy_.” 

 

Rey shifted uncomfortably, longing to stretch her arms, to point an accusatory finger at him, “I am not a _spy_. I left him with the intention of returning to you, to my clan, despite how you might treat me. And I bring news of—

 

“Silence.” It was the over-handsome one, Poe, who shushed her, “You can speak words in your defense when we reach the encampment,” then more broadly, “She has admitted to us that she is outcast. We are forbidden from speaking to them. Ignore her or risk being cast out yourself.” 

 

And so she was ignored for the remainder of the day, spoken of, but never to. They had mounted her on Bee, hands tied in front of her so she might grip his withers if need be. Subsequently they had tied Bee’s reins to the saddle of his rightful owner, the man called Poe, who was mounted on another horse. 

 

How Poe had allowed such a fine mount as Bee to be _stolen_ was beyond her; but the man had already taken a liking to the new name, it seemed, and had even flashed a smile at the story which accompanied it. That friendliness had quickly dissipated at the revelation of who she was. To these men she was not Rey, she was only an outcast. A leech on the belly of their clan. A disease to turn one's nose up at and look away for the distaste it stirs. 

 

But she was still one of their own, a member of their clan. Those who were cast out still stood a chance at redemption, supposedly. Most were given sentences, periods of time during which they must keep themselves sequestered from most clan activity or risk exile, but Rey, Rey had no sentence, only a vague idea of some egregious crime committed on the part of her parents. Parents who she had never known. It was unfair. 

 

But now, as she laid her head down on a root turned pillow, the snores of strange men echoing through the thicket around her, she felt the unfamiliar ache of longing hope in her chest. They were taking her home, to her clan, and furthermore they were taking her to the woman at its heart; Leia. The woman at the center of her struggle, she could take this all away, make Rey _human_ again, take away her pain and give her a place to belong to. Even if she were being taken before the War Chieftain in bindings, she would reveal the depth of Kylo’s plan and surely there would be no choice but to absolve her. 

 

Despite the hardness of the forest floor, the roughness of the bark beneath her cheek, Rey slept like a baby.

⇊

A day and a half of hard riding later, and Rey was eager to dismount and stretch her legs. She had learned a few more useful tidbits on the journey. Firstly, they were already aware of the threat Kylo’s clan posed, though they referred to it as Snoke’s. Secondly, they had been an out party, scouting the wilderness for spies trailing them from the Cut. They had found her, a stranger to them, riding a stolen horse in their direction; it only made sense that they would assume her to be a forward scout, a very stupid one, leaving herself exposed in the night, but a scout nonetheless. And once they brought her to Leia none of that would matter, she would reveal the depth of her knowledge and allay any fears that she might be a spy or enemy plant. And then… _and then_... freedom, she supposed.

 

They were entering the heart of the camp, now, something Rey hadn’t done since… she can’t remember. It was the most beautiful sort of chaos. The air filled with shouts and heavy with the scent and wafting smoke of cookfires. The human tide that flowed through the narrow, makeshift streets parted ahead of their small envoy. Some of the people smiled and called out to Ben, even reaching out to touch his boots and calves and nervous gelding as they passed. Others only watched on, eyes dark, faces shadowed in their places in the back of the crowd. It felt as though they were watching _her_. It made Rey anxiously shift on Bee’s back. What was wrong with them? 

 

Beyond those few glaring individuals no one stood out, she knew no one here. And why would she? The outcasts inhabited the fringes of the encampment, they never came this far for fear of retaliation or further punishment. She was out of her element, swaying, bound on the back of a stolen horse as hundreds, maybe thousands of strange people shouted at their passing. 

 

When she caught sight of a pavilion of blue satin partially obscured by the uproar, she could make out silvery white stars embroidered into its sides. She almost made a break for it, anything to clear this chaos. Sweat beaded on the back of her neck and her skin turned blotchy pink at the sudden realization that these people could tug her to the earth at any moment, pull her from her horse and tear out her hair, rip her limb from limb, and no one could stop them. Why would anyone care? She was an outcast, after all. An outcast who was currently bound like a prisoner, a fact not lost on her potential assailants who had begun hurling vitriol and more _tangible_ things in her direction. 

 

Just as she ducked under a ball of well aimed horse dung a small force of armed warriors emerged from the surrounding chaos, forcing their way to the front of the crowd and then shoving them back. 

 

“Make way! Make way!” They heralded, and the human wall finally began to eb. 

 

Poe cast a concerned look in her direction, but said nothing, even with the panic so clearly visible in her wide, wet, golden eyes. No one else acknowledged her until they reached the starry pavilion, when Ben reluctantly helped her off of her horse, giving her a wary look. He was going to tell Leia that Rey was a spy, there was little doubt. 

 

“Do not speak unless _I_ give you permission, are we clear? If you truly are what you claim to be, your words are poison.”

 

Rey lifted her wrists in silent question. Not bothering with words, knowing she would receive no verbal acknowledgement. Ben only turned away, strutting back towards his men as they readied themselves to meet with the War Chieftain. Leaving Rey to grumble and chafe as she tugged fruitlessly at the bindings. 

 

After a few soft spoken words to his party Ben returned to her, placed a broad hand on the small of her back and pushed her through the opening into the dimly lit pavilion. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust, but once they had she made out not one, but two figures sitting side by side on a hand woven rug. A woman and a man. Leia and… 

 

“Mother,” Ben greeted them, “Uncle.”

 

 _Uncle_?

 

“Our suspicions were correct. We encountered a forward scout two days ride behind us, less if one is alone and astride a well bred mount.”

 

The man hummed and rose slowly to his feet. He was old, like the grey of his beard implied, “And how do we know she is a spy?” 

 

“We found her in possession of a stolen horse, and…” he cast a sorrowful glance towards his mother, “She reeked of Kylo Ren. Even now, if you’re near enough, its like your standing next to him. Foul.” 

 

Luke paused before her and sniffed the air, eyes widening, “Yes… yes she smells like him.” 

 

Leia stirred but Luke motioned for her to stay down, “You need not subject—

 

“Yes, I do.” She shoved her brother aside and drew deeply of the air, sad eyes flickering with recognition, with a shaking breath she whispered, “And you’re an omega as well? Would he send his mate on such a perilous errand?”

 

Rey kept her lips pursed in a thin line, following instructions if only to speed the whole ordeal along.

 

“Is she mute or simply insolent?” Luke spat. 

 

“Insolent maybe,” Ben offered apologetically, “but not mute. I instructed her not to speak unless I expressly permitted it. She claimed to have been an outcast of our clan, a front I suspect, but better safe than sorry in these matters.” 

 

Luke grimaced away like she had spat on him, her presence was such an affront, but Leia only drew nearer, “If she wasn’t an outcast before she is now,” she tugged the collar of Rey’s linen tunic to the side, left then right, searching for a mating mark and finding none.

 

“They aren’t mated, but I’ve no doubt he saw her through her heat. The odor is… powerful.” She turned her attention to Rey, “I don’t know if you’re lying about having once been apart of our clan, but if you were and you weren’t an outcast before, you are now.” 

 

 _Was Kylo an outcast?_ She didn’t ask, rather she chose to push her boundaries, see how far she could reach without reprimand. 

 

“And if I was already an outcast?” Rey hissed. Ben tensed beside her. 

 

“Your sentence will be extended accordingly.” 

 

“Outcasts are to live out their punishments in isolation. They are to speak, and... erm... _interact_ with no one, even other outcasts,” Luke offered, suspiciously, “A true outcast would know that.” 

 

“Well I—

 

“Enough of this.” The older woman sounded weary, voice hoarse, eyes wet with old grief. “We will explore the truth of her claims before we question her further. Ben, take her to the cells. She must remain closely guarded in these trying times. I’m leaving it to you.” 

 

“Mother, I don’t know…” 

 

“Yes you do.” She whispered, resting a withering, reassuring palm on his broad shoulder, “Let only those who can be trusted near her. If she escapes… or if the wrong person manages to interact with her and get a message to… _him_.” 

 

Ben straightened, resolute, “She won’t escape, and no one outside of the inner circle will interact with her. I swear it.”

⇊

Before jailing her, Ben lead her to a smaller, more plain structure that was set adjacent to the starry pavilion. It was a tent of burlap and animal skins, the work of a talented hunter with deft hands. Inside it was equally bland, a few, simple heartwood bows hung from a rack, standard issue within the clan, and a stand displayed a set of mail and boiled leather armor, non-ornamented. The strong scent implied the humble place was Ben’s own, and it was nothing like his brother’s. She glanced his sleeping mat, woven from straw and covered in a thin sheet. Compared to Kylo’s pile of fur’s and silks it must’ve been the equivalent of sleeping on the cold, bare earth.

 

Ben knelt in front of a small chest and removed a few articles of clothing. He tossed them at her and she caught them with a surprised yelp. It was a linen shirt and a pair of simple wool trousers along with a length of rope to hold them in place. 

 

“You’re filthy,” he explained, busying himself with removing his travel gear, “Those will do until we find clothes that better fit.” 

 

She complied wordlessly while his back was turned, half hoping he would peek and glimpse the fading bruises his brother had left on her hips. The markings of broad, strong hands. She shuddered at the memory, thighs rubbing together of their own accord. 

 

Once she had changed and he had dressed down to camp clothes— a nearly identical outfit to her own— he grasped her by her wrist bindings and led her back out into the encampment, dragging her along like a dog on a leash when she failed to keep pace. She didn’t miss the way his eyes lingered over her, the way his overly large clothing hung over her slight curves. She gave him a knowing smirk. He ignored her. 

 

They passed the usual hustle and bustle, even as the sun was setting the camp remained busy. Goat and deer and rabbit sizzled on spits over great communal fires. Children scuttled about them, past and around them, one almost tripping Rey as she scampered after a mangy dog. She scared a small group of hens when she stepped too close to the nesting spot, and a rooster emerged from their center, strutting and squawking until the duo was well out of range. 

 

The mundanity of the chaos of daily life was enough to provide some distraction from her growing anxiety, but only for so long. They came to a sudden halt and she crashed into Ben’s back, feeling the breadth of his shoulder muscles twitch under her touch. She leapt backwards as far as he would allow and growled at him, low, animal, and it drew a reaction. 

 

He tugged her harshly forward, in front of him so her view was no longer obstructed, showing her what would be her temporary home until her exact status was discerned. It was a series of wooden cages, their bars thick as tree limbs, each one mounted on wheels and ready to be attached to an oxen or horse team in a moments notice. Inside each cage was a solitary prisoner with a solitary blanket. They wore no bindings on their wrists, but each was chained to the floor of their cage by the ankle. The shining, steel links looked harsh and heavy.

 

Rey swallowed hard, but said nothing. It’s not like Ben would deign to answer anyways. Not out here, not where anyone could see him speaking to an _outcast_. 

 

He dragged her towards an empty one as a jailor joined them to assist. The short, balding beta, unlocked the heavy padlock then offered Ben the key as the door swung open. He vanished just as quickly as he’d appeared, and Rey suspected she wouldn’t be seeing much of him. Outcasts were dangerous things, not to be trifled with, it seemed. 

 

Her companion pulled a knife from his belt and she wordlessly offered him her wrists. The rope severed with a satisfying _rip_ , and finally she was free of the bindings, only to be hoisted up against her will and thrust onto the rough, hard, wooden floor of her cell. Ben followed her in, gripping her by the ankle and slamming the provided shackle shut around it. He locked it, face drawn like he didn’t like this task he had been given. 

 

Rey whimpered, burying her face in her arms, feeling close to tears as the cart shifted with the loss of Ben’s weight. She heard the door creak shut, heard the key twist metallic in the lock. And then she was alone with none but the ambient noise of the camp around her to provide her company. 

 

Except she wasn’t. 

 

“Rey?” Ben asked, voice boyish and quiet from the entrance of her personal prison, “Was… what was Kylo like?” 

 

Slowly, incredulously, she raised her head to look at him, eyes red, face blotchy and streaked with tears. She sniffed. He looked as though it were a perfectly reasonable question to be asking her after _everything_ he had done to her today, after declaring her traitor to her people and locking her up like a common criminal, after ignoring her so studiously for fear that he might catch her imagined sickness. She could spit with the anger that welled in her chest at the look of old hurt that swan in his dark eyes. Some feud between brothers that had died long ago. 

 

She opted for cruelty over sensitivity to his pain. “His dick is bigger than yours, I’d wager.” 

 

His face crumpled and he turned away from her, parting without another word. 

 

And now she was really and truly alone. All she could think about, all she had taken away from this terrible day was one, cruel thought. 

 

Kylo Ren was an outcast, too. Of this very clan. Perhaps, for all the atrocities his clan committed unto others, she should have stayed. 

 

Kylo Ren was an outcast, and so was Rey. 

 

And now Rey was alone. 

 

The agony that permeated her wailing kept her fellow prisoners up well into the night. She couldn’t be bothered to care.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We'll be getting into more smut soon I _promise_ , but worldbuilding takes precedent atm <3 I didn't intend for this to become an actual story but here we are.


	7. mud between her toes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meet Finn, and Ben may have a crush?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :D

She woke with the sun the next morning, like all occupants of the cells did. For breakfast she ate a mealy apple and a heel of stale bread, and drank from an old waterskin. After that, she sat, for hours. The autumn sun could still scald the skin, but the jailors hardly seemed to care. She tugged her blanket around her shoulders to help keep the rays at bay. 

 

There was no lunch, only more water, and dinner was the same as breakfast had been, but this time the heel of bread was served with a chunk of hard butter. She ate, obeyed instructions, and kept her head down, hoping beyond hope that obedience would ultimately lead to a quicker resolution to this mess. It didn’t. She followed the same routine every day, until, as the sun set over the camp on the third day, the man in the cell adjacent to hers spoke. 

 

“Hey,” he kept is voice quiet, so as not to attract the jailor’s attentions, “Hey you, girl.” 

 

Rey tried to ignore him, pointedly avoiding eye contact whenever she so happened to glance in his general direction, but he persisted nonetheless. 

 

“Girl! Please, I’m dying over here, I just need to hear someone else’s voice.” 

 

She pretended not to know what he meant, pretended that the ambient noise of the camp around them was enough to sate her need for interaction, pretended that the loneliness wasn’t seeping into her bones in a way it hadn’t before. 

 

“ _Please_.” He sounded like he might cry, and so she relented. Twisting where she sat to face him, wanting to avoid a scene. 

 

He was another omega, if her nose could be trusted at a distance, male, dark skinned and handsome enough. Though omegas rarely took interest in other omegas. It wasn’t an effective breeding strategy. 

 

“Hi!” He grinned at her, waving like a child. She almost turned back around and resumed ignoring him, “I’m Finn.”

 

She considered him for another moment before replying, “I’m Rey.” 

 

“I know, I’ve heard them talking about you.”

 

“Then you know why I’m here?” She breathed, leaning back onto the heels of her hands, mortified at the prospect that every member of the clan might know… 

 

Face falling, Finn replied quietly, “Yea, they… some of them call you names.” 

 

Her fingers curled into her palms, nails biting hard into her skin, masochistically and darkly, she questioned, “ _Like what_?”

 

“I…” 

 

“Tell me, Finn, or I’ll turn around and go back to ignoring you.”

 

Just the threat of further isolation was enough to goad him into answering, “They call you Kylo Ren’s whore. I… I’m from his clan, so I know who he is. I know he probably—

 

“He didn’t force me!” Rey snarled, lunging towards the bars, but she stopped herself before she reached them, shaking her head to clear away the initial animal reaction, “He isn’t like that.” 

He had never hurt her, had never done a thing she didn’t want or enjoy. He was like her, too, though it was too late for that. 

 

“You’re not from that clan, Rey. He’s prolific. Everyone knows what a cruel, manipulative, megalomaniacal bastard he is.” Finn explained, “It’s why I left, partially, why I’m waiting here to be judged.”

 

She didn’t know how to respond, she’d heard the stories as well, was aware of them while she let Kylo Ren carry her to his bed, but the experience, the man she had come to know over those precious few days, had left her with doubts. She remained silent. 

 

“I just wanted to… I don’t know, offer my friendship? Once we’re both cleared, people are going to doubt our loyalties at first, we’re going to need to stick together. That clan is poison, we’re both lucky to be free of it.” She felt his eyes at the crux of her shoulder, where a mating mark might be had things progressed as Kylo had wanted. Rey pointedly tugged the collar of Ben’s shirt back up her shoulder, flashing teeth in quiet warning. That wasn’t his business, wasn’t his pain to know.

 

“Sorry,” he offered, gently, “I just… I’ve heard about how he hurts omegas, men and women…”

 

Rey’s expression softened. Finn was truly just lonely. Nosy, maybe. And she suspected mislead, though she needed to discern the truth about Kylo before she could rightfully claim so. But lonely nonetheless. Rey had been lonely from the day of her birth, outcast. Maybe they were two of a kind. She had one final question for him first, one final test of his character. 

 

“How do you know I’m innocent? How do you know I wasn’t sent to spy?” 

 

Finn shifted to lean his face between the bars, “The horse, the clan would never have willingly let you ride off on that horse. I was one of the horse hands, and the herd was getting… weird. Not enough blood between them. A few foals were born funny…” he trailed off, like he was remembering the absolute absurdity of it, “Anyways, one day that big beautiful fella just comes wandering into the camp, the solution to all of our problems. They wouldn’t send you off with him. You had to have stolen him.” He smiled. 

 

Rey stared back at him, lips parted, she couldn’t decide if that logic was ingenius, deeply flawed, or some unholy combination of the two, “You’re an interesting sort, aren’t you Finn?” She chuckled, and Finn smiled back.

 

Suddenly, for the first time in her life, Rey had a friend. 

 

They continued on with their quiet conversations each evening, and Rey found that she wholly enjoyed Finn’s company. He was gentle and kind and entirely ill suited to his clan of origin. He had fled just a few days before she had, when they had begun to prepare the herds for what he thought was a raid on a Lamb village. Rey knew better, but kept as much to herself. Finn had insofar proven himself to be a friend, but that tiny modicum of information could mean the difference between life and death for her. 

 

And the horse, Bee; she had dubbed him, was never stolen, despite what Poe might’ve said. The fool left the creature unattended and he wandered into an adjacent camp, according to Finn. Rey had never been a horse thief, in fact, she mused that Poe should be thanking _her_ for the reunification.

 

The days went by, they laughed and rambled and joked with one another, and Rey felt astoundingly wanted, and infinitely less alone. Then, on the tenth day, Ben came for her, for _them_.

⇊

They were helped out of their cells— their muscles having begun to atrophy from malnutrition and disuse— and their wrists were bound with hempen rope. Rey cast a glance at Finn and found him smiling. They were being taken to be judged. Ben led her by her wrists while Poe led Finn.

 

She could feel his eyes on her, wary but wandering. She still wore his borrowed clothes, any unmated alpha would be tantalized. But Ben’s interest was interwoven with an intense angst and anxiety that she could feel even through the slightest of touches; that she had slept with his brother was difficult for him to grasp. She suspected Kylo was dead to this family before her arrival, and when she came hurtling into the picture, his scent thick on her skin and clothes, she had brought him back to life. 

 

“Luke is going to pass judgement onto the both of you today,” a tiny, dark haired woman was bringing up their rear, a bow slung haphazardly over her left shoulder, a silent threat not to run, “We already know what he’s going to say.” The smirk she gave was… _irksome_. 

 

Finn seemed entirely unbothered by her smugness, glancing repeatedly back to catch glimpses at her, tripping over his own feet more than once. 

 

“Never learned how to walk, omega?” Poe commented dryly, giving Finn a shove to keep him moving. 

 

The tiny woman was an alpha, Rey quickly discerned through a whiff of the air, and it would seem that Finn was infatuated. Love at first smell. Though that hardly meant a thing if Luke decided execution was their fate. 

 

They were pushed back through the velveteen flaps of the starry pavilion, and there, sitting cross legged on the floor, was the tired faced Luke, sans Leia this time. He sniffed and grunted, rising slowly to his feet. Rey heard his knees crack and winced. 

 

“Rey and Finn,” he paused, unused to the lack of family names, “I have had you brought before me today to face the judgement of the Gods. I meditated on your circumstances for seven nights, and have decided that your intentions are pure and true, by the mother I grant you the mercy of your lives.” 

 

Both of the defendants in question relaxed a bit, Finn letting some of his weight rest on Poe. Poe neither commented, nor stopped him. 

 

“ _But_ ,” Rey stiffened again, “You must first prove yourselves worthy to be full members of our people. By the Hunter, you will serve under our finest rangers as stewards, until the time they feel they can trust you wholly, then and only then will you be released from your service and be permitted to live within the clan as any other.” 

 

The two of them shared a long look, Finn’s eyes blooming with hopeful tears, Rey’s swimming in uncertainty. 

 

“Finn, you will be accompanying Rose and Poe on their assignments and aiding them in their duties.” His watery, grey gaze shifted to her, “Rey, you will be assigned to Ben. Neither of you will part from your rangers for the duration of this… trial. Do you understand?” 

 

“Yes.” They answered in unison. 

 

“Poe, Rose, Finn, you are dismissed.” His attentions turned fully to Rey, “Ben and Rey, remain here, there are further conditions for the two of you.” 

 

They stood in awkward silence until the others had shuffled from the tent, then Luke began, low and warning, “You are not to speak of your previous designation as outcast, Rey. We are making a rare exception for you in allowing you to achieve citizenship despite the circumstances of your birth. No one beyond myself, Ben, and Leia can ever know.”

 

Swallowing hard, Rey asked through the lump in her throat, “Why, then? Why me?”

 

“We have verified the information you gave us. As we speak Snoke’s clan marches toward our location, ready for war. We would have remained camped here for another fortnight had you not arrived with your warning, you gave us time, potentially saved thousands of lives. You have redeemed yourself in the eyes of the Gods.” 

 

Rey scoffed, “And what was my crime? Being born?”

 

Luke shuffled closer, eyes flashing blue in the dim light, “Every action from the moment your parents met, to your conception, to the day of your birth was a crime. Blame them, wherever their souls may rest, not the Gods for imposing laws upon us.”

 

Teeth flashing menacingly, she jerked against Ben’s grip, “What did they do? Who were they? Tell me what they did. I deserve to know why I spent nineteen years completely and utterly _alone_.” 

 

Luke shook his head, “That is between them and the Gods, little one. And your teeth do not frighten me,” his line of sight shifted to his nephew, “Ben, take her to your tent, help her get reasonably settled. Debrief her on the situation, I expect the two of you to ride out tomorrow at first light.”

⇊

He had made some preparations for her, for which she was immensely grateful. There was a small chest of clothes that _fit_ , Gods be good, and a second, smaller pile of furs adjacent to his own. As soon as she’d slipped out of her dirty, week-old clothes, she flopped onto the furs, groaning at the plush texture beneath her fingers.

 

“Oh fuck, this is nice,” she smiled into a musky elk pelt, face buried, unable to contain the pleased trill that stirred in the back of her throat, “Thank you.” 

 

“Um…” She could practically taste his anxiety in the air between them. He must not have had girls over often.

 

“You don’t have anything planned for today, do you? I could really use a nap.” She smiled sweetly, hoping to waylay some of his anxiety. He seemed so… boyish here, with a girl in his room. 

 

He puffed his cheeks, “I… you kind of reek. I wanted to show you a place where you could bathe.” 

 

“Oh.” Now that she was made aware of it, she did stink, and after nearly two weeks locked in a cage, who could blame her? She remembered her last bath, in the tub with Kylo, on top of him, him locked inside of her. It had already been a fortnight… “Yea, you’re right, I could use a bath.” 

 

He led her through the camp, to its outskirts and edge and beyond, through bramble and bush. She was beginning to suspect that there was no bathing spot, that he had only brought her out this far to kill her, when the air around them began to warm despite the sun slowly beginning to make its descent in the sky.

 

Hot springs… She’d never been in a hot spring before. Only even watched from a distance as true clansmen and women bathed. Hot water was a privilege, it had appeared, and now she was party to it, all because she spent her heat fucking an enemy war chieftain. 

 

The water rippled and bubbled from beneath, steam wafting high into the air, even the muddy banks looked appealing. What would the mud feel like between her toes? 

 

“These will only become more common as the clan journeys further south. The Lamb Men believe them to have spiritual significance and healing properties.” 

 

“Do they?” She asked, glancing at him over her shoulder.

 

“No. Not that I’ve noticed, but I’m hardly a storied warrior.” 

 

Rey wondered why that was, when Kylo was so prolific, but she didn’t ask, didn’t want to stoke any more ill will in the man, “Um…” She glanced left and right, making certain that they were truly alone, “Turn around, I guess?” 

 

“Wait,” he rifled through his pack and produced an amorphous lump of… something, “Here.” 

 

He pressed it into her palm and then promptly turned to face the tree line. The object was hard and cream colored, lumpy but also smooth somehow, and she could scratch away chips of it easily with her finger, “...What is this?”

 

He glanced back at her, full lips parted slightly, brow furrowed, “You’ve never— that’s lye soap, Rey. It’s the stuff most people use to get clean. It's cheap and the easiest to make.”

 

She remembered the scented soaps she had used during her brief stay with Kylo, cut into varying shapes and sizes, colored to match their many smells… “I didn’t have soap as an outcast. If I really needed to scrub at something I had pine needles, otherwise I did my best with just water.” 

 

His face fell. Did he truly not know how deprived the outcasts were? As the son of the war chieftain and nephew of the spiritual leader one would think he’d _know_ , unless none of them knew the depth of it. 

 

“Turn around,” Rey murmured, already reaching for the hem of her shirt.

 

Ben sat on a rock and fiddled with his weapons, facing away from the spring as Rey disrobed, laying her new clothes out on a dry rock, and toeing the water curiously. The mud was squishy beneath her feet and rushed up between her toes, warm and pleasant. She edged her way into the water, and found it only rose up to her waist at its deepest point. Sinking in up to her shoulders, letting more of her body touch the silty floor, she sighed, and Ben stirred on his rock. 

 

“You okay?” He called into the trees, baritone echoing. He sounded so much like his brother. 

 

“Yes,” Rey replied as she began to scrub at her skin with the soap, trying not to imagine him with a scar on his face, “You can look now, my whole body is submerged.”

 

There was a beat of silence, Ben’s shoulders stilling completely, as though he weren’t even breathing at the prospect, “...I’ll stay where I am, don’t take too long, we need to be back at the encampment before sundown to go over our orders.”

 

Rey deflated at the prospect, continuing the scrub until her skin was clean and pink and raw. A fortnight of imprisonment to be left forgotten in the bubbling water of the spring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay I know we've been a few chapters without smut, but I need to build to the next round. 2 to 3 chapters probably. I hope that's not off putting to anyone <3
> 
> As always, comments feed my desire to write, as do kudos. Let me know what you're thinking <3


	8. winter sun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Author got a little tropey, it would seem :/
> 
> There has been a time skip of several weeks.
> 
> Content warning for non-graphic animal death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for not replying to any comments last chapter, time got away from me and life made finding the time difficult. This time I'll do better <3

Their orders had been simple; _track the enemy_. Their preparations had been extensive; bringing ample provisions and salves and the equipment to acquire their own. Their relationship was strained by the knowledge of her relations with Kylo Ren, the very enemy they now stalked. But they managed. 

 

Nothing could have prepared Rey for this, the late summer snows on the northern plains, up to her waist in some places, she stayed on horseback as much as she could. Ben looked at her with pity whenever she was forced to dismount. She had never experienced snow in this capacity, the clan was always well beyond the wild plains and into the southlands by now. Coping with the physical obstacle was one thing, but the cold that accompanied it was an entirely different beast. 

 

At night she shivered in her damp blankets and furs, staring up at the clear sky, no clouds to insulate, only endless black and speckled stars. She could see the gods watching, the twinkle in the hunter’s eye, the glint at the tip of their arrow. Her chosen god, her patron. She wondered if they judged her choices now, if she had made the right decision to broker this deal with her captors. She shivered and pondered until a restless, cold sleep dragged her into its depths. 

 

The next day the moved southeast, keeping easy pace with the distant but visible column of the enemy clan. They were struggling in the snow just as the two scouts were, but two were faster than two-thousand, and the two managed to advance a ways up the line, until the palanquin of the holy man came into view. Rey shuddered to know that Kylo would be nearby, guarding his master.

 

They kept a line of rolling hills between themselves and the sight of the enemy, only peeking over every few hours to ascertain their position in comparison to the procession. All the while keeping cautious eyes wide for outriders. They continued on until nightfall, when the column finally halted under the black smear of a clouded, starless sky. 

 

The cloud cover was so thick the moon could cast no light through. They unpacked and settled down at the foot of a hill in inky blackness, only the paleness of the snow breaking it. The winds beginning to pick up, whispering of more snow to come. Rey huddled and shivered, teeth clattering, too cold to eat her meager dinner of stale bread and deer jerky. 

 

For the first time since they had rode out that morning, Ben spoke, “The cold… I’d kill for a fire. But short of burning horse shit, we’ve no way to build one.” He sounded truly sympathetic, and Rey wondered at where the stuck-up bastard from the camp had gone. He seemed to have vanished as soon as they passed from Luke and Leia’s sights. 

 

Rey only nodded, crawling shakily into her hide sleeping back, tugging needily at the blankets within, food forgotten. The first fat snowflakes began to drift lazily from the sky as the wind wailed over the moor, between the sloping hills. 

 

“Rey,” she heard Ben call from nearby, his voice thick with worry, “Rey you need to eat something.” 

 

She bit the inside of her cheek and croaked, “Can’t.” It was too cold, it cut her to the bone and held fast in her insides. She wasn’t hungry, or thirsty, or tired even, just cold. 

 

A moment of eerie winter silence passed, the wind ceased its wailing and the snow absorbed all ambient sound. For a fleeting second there was only the sound of Rey’s labored breathing, followed by the crunch-whine of boots over the snow. Ben crouched beside her, removing his boots, his fingers shaking as he tugged at the laces. 

 

“Open up, Rey.” If it was meant to be a command it failed on every level. He sounded afraid. Like a frightened child. 

 

She made no move to obey, only remained as still as her freezing body would allow. Moving hurt.

 

“ _Please_ , Rey. You’re freezing.” When she still didn’t move, something like understanding flashed behind his dark eyes. She _couldn’t_ move. It was too cold to do anything, so cold that her insides were beginning to feel warm; light and pleasant, like the spring. 

 

With an expression of stalwart determination, Ben began to peel back the layers that covered his torso, letting them fall haphazardly into the snow, leaving him in a confusing mix of light linen above the waist and heavy fur below. He knelt beside the sleeping bag and unlaced it enough to wriggle his way in. He was too large for it, his body practically tearing the thing apart at the seams, but he made himself fit by crushing Rey face first into his chest.

 

Her initial squeak of surprise was muffled into the wide, soft, warm expanse of his chest, and was immediately followed by a sigh of intense relief. He was hot; inconceivably hot in that moment. She yanked her gloves off of her hands and thrust her fingers under the loose linen of his shirt, pressing them firmly to the scorching, pale flesh of his muscular abdomen, feeling slowly returning to their tips. 

 

“How’re you so warm?” She mumbled against him, struggling to get closer, to bask more fully in the warmth of him. 

 

He cleared his throat, and she came to the sudden realization that this must be distinctly uncomfortable for him. She could only curl closer, warmth first, consequences later. 

 

“It’s an alpha thing,” he finally replied, voice strained. 

 

 _Right_. Ben was an alpha, just like Kylo Ren. But he was different from his brother, more gentle, tentative, almost afraid. Here, alone in the wilderness, he lacked the infallible confidence that made so many alphas insufferable. She snuggled closer still, burying her face into the crook of his shoulder, panting reflexively at the proximity of his scent gland. She should pull away. _But he was so warm_. 

 

Large hands gripped tightly at her sides, only loosening when she settled and stilled against him. Slowly, and with a delicateness that spoke of fear, his hands dropped from her and his arms wound around her, holding her close. Rey felt his breath on her neck, scenting her, and she did nothing to dissuade him besides murmur a soft, tired, “Go to sleep, Ben.” 

 

And they did.

⮇

Morning came bright and violent, sunlight reflecting harshly off of fresh fallen snow. Rey ducked her head into the sleeping bag and groaned, wanting to remain secure in this unusual warmth, in the closeness of another human body. She felt hot, burning from her scalp to her toes, but she hardly minded when the world outside was so brutally frigid.

 

Ben remained asleep beside her, wrapped around her, and as she came fully awake in their cocoon she was greeted by the distinct press of something hot and hard against her hip, even through the thickness of their fur pants she could feel it. She didn’t even pretend to care. This heat was exquisite. Curling closer, she let out a breathy sigh of contentedness, and Ben stirred beside her. 

 

Initially she hoped it was only to shift his body weight and remain comfortably asleep, but he grunted and his eyes fluttered open to squint against the morning light. His cock twitched against her leg and he rubbed his eyes to get his bearings. She watched irritably as he took in the position of the sun, high in the blue winter sky, and he snarled a curse under his breath. 

 

“Rey, Rey wake up it’s—

 

“Time to go?” A foreign but familiar voice interjected, high and nasal, _Hux_. They’d been found out.

 

Rey could hear the crunch of his boots in the snow as she scrambled from the sleeping bag. Tugging a knife from her belt she leapt to her feet, but the sunlight off of the crystalline substrate was blinding and she faltered, blinded by the light. 

 

In the time it took her to adjust he had her by the hair, feet kicked out from under her so she knelt in the snow, knife lost in the squabble.

 

“Oh this is precious. You leave the mighty Kylo Ren, greatest warrior to have ever lived, at the altar, and then move on to shack up with his runt of a brother?” Hux howled with laughter, then his voice dropped low, and his breath tickled her ear as he whispered; “He’s going to skin you alive, _whore_.” 

 

Somewhere behind them Ben shouted and struggled as they wrestled him into restraints. Rey shuddered and hung her head, defeat seeping into her bones as readily as the cold. She’d carved Kylo’s face in half. She expected nothing but cruelty in return. 

 

They were each hoisted up onto the back of a pack horse and tied on with ropes. Facing one another, Rey observed Ben’s expression, drawn, smooth and untelling. Her own was one of panic, she was certain. She shut her eyes tight and kept them that way as the horse jerked into motion, moving at an achingly slow pace through the snow. 

 

She opened them only once, to look back. It was foolish of her. She watched as one of Hux’s men slashed her horse’s throat with a knife, and she listened to its dying screams. Ben’s animal followed shortly after. They weren’t even tied to live horses to be taken back to the column, a source of precious food and hide. Instead they were left to freeze beneath the brutal winter sun, a warning to any who might have followed in Ben and Rey’s footsteps. 

 

Rey shut her eyes again, felt wetness on her cheeks. 

 

Across from her, voice strained by his position, Ben whispered with quiet conviction, “We’ll be okay, Rey.” 

 

It took nearly an hour to bridge the half mile gap between their night’s camp and the column of the enemy clan. On arrival Hux circled the group on his lean black steed and commanded with his usual pomp, “Take the scouts to the cells, then take the day for yourselves. You’ve done well, my men.” 

 

The soldiers around them gave a mighty hoot, and Hux’s grin shifted from victorious to something far more sinister. He locked eyes with Rey and spat, “I must go speak with Kylo Ren. There is something he should see.” 

 

Rey bared her teeth to him before her horse was spun around and she and Ben were marched to the cells. They were much like the ones of her own clan, on wheels, though these ones were currently in motion, tied to teams of oxen, and their bars were brittle, black iron, not wood. They were covered in black tarp, at least, to help hold in the body heat of the occupants. 

 

“What good is a prisoner dead from the cold?” Ben spat sarcastically, “No fun in that sort of execution.”

 

Rey didn’t reply, watching closely as one of the soldiers and a gaoler shared a few words. The gaoler indicated towards one of the rolling cells, and passed the soldier a key. They were both thrown roughly onto the hard wooden floor, of the cell, hands and feet still bound in rope but otherwise left unrestrained. The tarp was pulled tight and they were left alone in the dim light of their shared prison. 

 

Rey sat up and scratched an itch on her cheek with her bound hands. Ben’s were tied behind his back and he remained on his side, facing away from her. 

 

The silence stretched on for a few moments before Ben flipped to look at her, his expression still unreadable, “I asked you a question a few weeks ago, when I first put you in a cell just like this one… your answer was unsatisfactory.” 

 

“Considering the circumstances I think it was appropriate.” She _had_ just been wrongfully imprisoned. At the time she’d even thought her answer to be true, now she was less certain. 

 

“It’s time to tell me the truth.” Ben awkwardly struggled to a sitting position, “What is my brother like? What are we up against?” 

 

Letting out a shuddering breath she shrank beneath his gaze, biting her lip before answering, “We… didn’t spend much time talking, but when we did he was respectful and sweet. I suppose he could do that with all of his conquests though…” She trailed off, finding the topic distinctly uncomfortable. 

 

Ben snorted, feigning incredulity, but his desire to placate her worries was transparent, “Other conquests? Rey, he was a virgin when he was— when he left. The rumors you heard, we all hear, he started those himself to make himself seem more alpha male and less frightened child. It might not be true anymore but… I doubt he’s ever been with a woman outside of his rut.” 

 

Rey gaped at the realization, and further at the intensity of Ben’s voice, the spark in his sable eyes; “Ben Solo… are you trying to make me feel better about sleeping with your brother?” 

 

“You deserve something besides shame.” He coughed uncomfortably, “Is there anything else you can tell me about him? Any detail you remember that could get us out of here alive?”

 

Rey shook her head, “I— he seemed lonely, and his loyalty to his master was unquestionable… Ben, he wanted to mate with me, to have babies with me…” Her eyes widened as an idea dawned across her companion’s face. 

 

“You’ll have to be our weapon then, Rey. If he’s in love with you.” 

 

He was crazy. “We don’t know we can’t count on—

 

The tarp was drawn back and the gaoler's fat, red face appeared behind the barred door, silhouetted by sharp winter sunlight, “The War Chieftain is coming to have a look at you, so um, make yourselves look as nice as you can in there, heh.” 

 

The tarp was drawn again and Rey cursed under her breath. 

 

“We’ll know soon enough, Rey.” Ben sounded sad, and his tight lipped smile matched. He was about to come face to face with his twin for the first time since that twin was cast out. 

 

“Are you ready?” Rey asked, dumbly. 

 

“No.”

⮇

Rey smelled Kylo before he arrived just past noon, and knew by this and the knot low in her gut that a heat was not far beyond her horizon. She said nothing of it to Ben, bottled it tight and pretended not to be shaken as the tarp was pulled away and the iron door to their cage was swung open with a piercing _shriek_.

 

Neither of them cowered as a hulking shadow stepped up and into the cell, presence so imposing that is was impossible to mistake him for anyone but Kylo Ren, even as blinding sunlight flooded their eyes. 

 

“Rey.” He gasped, and she felt him fall to his knees beside her. His back shielding her from the sun, as he leaned over her. Her eyes adjusted and fluttered with relief, finally able to return his gaze, to look upon the scar she he rendered across his face. 

 

It was no longer the aesthetic, silvery thing she had used as a blueprint, now it was angry red and knotted. She wanted to reach up and touch it, amazed that she had left such a profound mark upon such a powerful man. 

 

He smiled, “The scar? I wouldn’t let the healers touch it, not until I found you.”

 

Swallowing hard, she broached, “Are you going to have us executed?”

 

“Why did you run from me?” He asked, ignoring her own question. His voice was tight with hurt and a gloved knuckle ghosted across her cheekbone.

 

Rey shuddered under his touch, her inner omega preening at the attention, the rest of her horrified as his apparent continued devotion. “I…” She felt tears prickling at the corners of her honey eyes, the truth spilling past her lips unbidden, no secrets to be kept from this man, her almost mate, who was not so unlike her, “ _I’m an outcast_.” 

 

He sucked in a sharp breath, and leaned closer, plush lips just inches from her own, “We are the same, little huntress, in every conceivable way. There was no need to run,” he smiled, “ _I’m an outcast too_.”

 

And he kissed her, slow and gentle on the mouth, her chapped lips melding so easily with his soft ones. He tasted of mint and tea and for a moment Rey forgot that Ben watched just a few feet away, that she could be jeopardizing her citizenship in her own clan. 

 

They parted with a wet sound and Kylo breathed heavily despite the gentleness of their kiss, “No, little huntress, you will not be executed, no harm will come to you _ever_ , as long as I live.”

 

“What about—

 

He leaned in again, this time so that his lips could brush the shell of her ear, “I can smell the heat on you, Rey. _He_ did something to trigger it, didn’t he? I won’t ask what it was… but I know it was him.”

 

 _The sleeping bag, his cock hard against her, aquiline nose buried against her gland._ Rey winced away from Kylo and his sordid implications, but knew them to be true. 

 

Kylo retreated again and gave her a sad smile, “You’ll have to stay here for now, little one. I cannot free you without my master’s blessing, but I’ll be back soon.” 

 

 _To take you away from Ben._ The words passed unspoken in between them, in the downward tug of his mouth and the furrow of his brow, “I must take my leave,” he supplied softly, caressing her hair, “but first…” He spun on his booted heal and kicked Ben squarely in the gut.

 

The prone man grunted and Rey winced as Kylo retreated wordlessly from the cage, offering one final glance over his black clad shoulder before the door was shut and locked behind him and the tarp was once again drawn tight. 

 

“Ben?” Rey scrambled across the floor to him, bound hands worrying at the rope that held them, “Ben are you okay? Did he break anything?”

 

“No,” he sputtered, wincing as he sat back up, “No it was just my stomach… _I_.” His voice sounded tight, strained, “That was him.” 

 

Rey nodded frantically, still concerned about internal bleeding. Kylo was strong and she remembered his boots being tipped in metal. 

 

“ _My brother_ ,” tears streaked his cheeks in the dark of the cage, but his voiced steadied, gaze watery but determined, “His scar… you reopened it when you fled him?” 

 

“Yes. Ben is there any way you can lift your shirt? I want to check for bruises.” She pushed frantically at the linen with her knuckles, struggling to get a grip on the hem with her fingers.

 

Ignoring her, he chuckled darkly, “It would seem we’ve both left our mark on his body, then.”

 

The silvery scar that had served as a map for her knife, it had been Ben’s doing? His own brother? 

 

 _Your own lover._ She chastised herself. 

 

“Your mark is uglier, Rey.” Ben smiled, cheeks still wet but eyes dry once more, “But mine runs so much deeper.” 

 

She wasn’t sure what to say, the details of Kylo’s past in their clan were a mystery to her, and she wasn’t certain she’d ever hear an unbiased truth. 

 

But Ben was already moving on, repressing the shock of the previous moment’s reunion and declaring confidently, “He’s in love with you, Rey. That’s our way out of here.” 

 

And despite the pleasure of his touch, the promise in his voice at the realization that her heat was near, she knew she couldn’t stay. Kylo had chosen the war path long before she had met him, and he wouldn’t change for her. That he wouldn’t free her without the consent of his master was proof enough of that. 

 

Ben shifted awkwardly beside her, and it took her a moment to realize he was pulling a hidden knife from his belt. The idiot soldiers had been so eager for some drink and leave that neither prisoner had been searched for weapons. He spun to face away from her, the serrated edge of the blade pointed upward. 

 

“I’ll hold the knife, you cut your hands free, then your feet, then me.” He explained. 

 

“Then what?” She asked as she began to rhythmically saw at her restraints, smiling as the rope broke apart into threads. 

 

“I was hoping you might have and idea, as the object of his affections.” Ben grunted, and Rey caught the way his voice flagged slightly with envy. 

 

Hands finally free, she took the knife and cut her feet loose, then Ben’s hands. She gave him the knife to free his own feet. 

 

Settled on a plan, Rey whispered, like someone outside of their chilled prison might hear her treason, “We wait as long as we can, and then I’ll scream like you’re attacking me. Pretend like you are, and when they open the cage, we attack and then make a break for it. We can’t be far from the Lamb villages now, we can make it.” 

 

Ben grinned at her and whispered back, “Clever girl.”

 

It wasn’t until they were waiting in comfortable silence that Rey realized her heat would come while she was alone with Ben, an alpha. But that was only if their escape was successful. So she chose to focus on the task at hand, and try to ignore the growing discomfort in her center. 

 

 _Heat with Ben wouldn’t be so bad_ , a tiny voice whispered in the back of her mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note that the end note now says "My Twitter" not "My Tumblr", I deleted my Tumblr and I have 0 intention of returning anytime soon. Good news is Twitter makes it easier for me to run opinion polls and post brief excerpts as sneak peeks. Please consider giving me a follow! 
> 
>  
> 
> **Also I will be at Star Wars Celebration in April, updates for Reylo meetups will be on Twitter**
> 
>  
> 
> (smut returns next chapter, btw)

**Author's Note:**

> Just another A/B/O fic. I’m borrowing the aesthetic from Horizon: Zero Dawn, and the Dothraki from Game of Thrones by the way.
> 
> Please do tell me what you think of this filth. 
> 
> My Twitter: [link](https://twitter.com/_bitter_bones_)


End file.
